



:"W . 




1 1 • 







^COu 




IP? 



ATACOMBS OF ROME, 



f- 



AND THEIR 



TESTIMONY RELATIVE TO PRIMITIVE 
CHRISTIANITY. 



REV. W. H. WITH ROW, M.A 




^H°x°eW| f 



PER^QTTE ADVERSU8 TTNIVERBA6 HjERESES JAM HINC PKjEJTTDIOATTTM SIT ; ID EB8I 
VERUM, QUODCUNQtTE PKIMUM ; ID ESSE ADULTERUM. QITODCUNQTJE POSTERIU8. 

— TrRTtrM ta?t, a dt>. Praxean. 



NEW YORK : EATON & MAINS 

CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & PYE 

[All Rights Reserved.] 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

)UN. 25 1901 

COWRIOHT ENTRY 

CLASS <*< XXO. N». 

94*7 

COPY B. 



ft* 



.a 



Or 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

NELSON & PHILLIPS, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



Copyrighted 1901, by W. H. Withrow. 



REV. JOHN M C CAUL, LL.D 

PRESIDENT OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 

TORONTO, CANADA, 

ONE OF THE MOST EMINENT OF LIVING EFIGRAPHISTS : 

IN ADMIRATION OF 

HIS DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARSHIP, 

AND 

AS A TRIBUTE OF PERSONAL ESTEEM, 

^his Book 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
BY THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The present work, it is hoped, will supply a want long 
felt in the literature of the Catacombs. That litera- 
ture, it is true, is very voluminous ; but it is for the 
most part locked up in rare and costly folios in foreign 
languages, and inaccessible to the general reader 
Recent discoveries have refuted some of the theories 
and corrected many of the statements of previous 
books in English on this subject ; and the present vol- 
ume is the only one in which the latest results of 
exploration are fully given, and interpreted from a 
Protestant point of view. 

The writer has endeavored to illustrate the subject 
by frequent pagan sepulchral inscriptions, and by 
citations from the writings of the Fathers, which 
often throw much light oh the condition of early 
Christian society. The value of the work is greatly 
enhanced, it is thought, by the addition of many 
hundreds of early Christian inscriptions carefully 
translated, a very large proportion of which have 
never before appeared in English. Those only who 
have given some attention to epigraphical studies can 
conceive the difficulty of this part of the work. The de- 
facements of time, and frequently the original imper- 
fection of the inscriptions and the ignorance of their 



6 Preface. 

writers, demand the utmost carefulness to avoid errors 
of interpretation. The writer has been fortunate in 
being assisted by the veteran scholarship of the 
Rev. Dr. McCaul, well known in both Europe and 
America as one of the highest living authorities in 
epigraphical science, under whose critical revision 
most of the translations have passed. Through the 
enterprise of the publishers this work is more copi- 
ously illustrated, from original and other sources, than 
any other work on the subject in the language ; thus 
giving more correct and vivid impressions of the un- 
familiar scenes and objects delineated than is possi- 
ble by any mere verbal description. References are 
given, in the foot-notes, to the principal authorities 
quoted, but specific acknowledgment should here be 
made of the author's indebtedness to the Cavaliere 
De Rossi's Roma Sotterranea and Inscriptiones Chris- 
tiana, by far the most important works on this fas- 
cinating but difficult subject. 

Believing that the testimony of the Catacombs 
exhibits, more strikingly than any other evidence, the 
immense contrast between primitive Christianity and 
modern Romanism, the author thinks no apology 
necessary for the somewhat polemical character of 
portions of this book which illustrate that fact. He 
trusts that it will be found a contribution of some 
value to the historical defense of the truth against 
the corruptions and innovations of Popish error. 

New York, 1874. 



CONTENTS. 



800k Jfirst. 

THE STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS. 

Chaptbb Page 

I. The Structure of the Catacombs n 

II. The Origin and Early History of the Catacombs. 49 

III. The Disuse and Abandonment of the Catacombs. 120 

IV. The Rediscovery and Exploration of the Cata- 

combs 150 

V. The Principal Catacombs 164 

§00h Sn0Jt0. 

THE ART AND SYMBOLISM OF THE CATACOMBS. 

I. Early Christian Art 203 

II. The Symbolism of the Catacombs 225 

III. The Biblical Paintings of the Catacombs 282 

IV. Objects found in the Catacombs 362 

800k &{rir0. 

THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CATACOMBS. 

I. General Character of the Inscriptions 395 

II. The Doctrinal Teachings of the Inscriptions... 415 

III. Early Christian Life and Character as read in 

the Catacombs 453 

IV. Ministry, Rites, and Institutions of the Primitive 

Church as Indicated in the Catacombs 506 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Fig. Page 

1. Entrance to Catacomb of 

St. Priscilla 12 

2. Entrance to Catacomb of 

St. Prsetextatus 16 

3. Part of Callixtan Cata- 

comb 17 

4. Gallery with Tombs 18 

5. Interior of Corridor 20 

6. Loculi — Open and Closed 23 

7. Tomb of Valeria 24 

8. Arcosolium with Perfo- 

rated Slab 25 

9. Plan of Double Chamber. 26 

10. Section of Gallery and 

Cubicula 27 

11. Suite of Chambers 28 

12. Vaulted Chamber with 

Columns 29 

13. Cubiculum with Arcoso- 

lia 30 

14. Section of Catacomb of 

Callixtus , 32 

15. Cubicula with Luminare. 35 

16. Gallery in St. Hermes.. 42 

17. Part of Wall of Gallery 

in St. Hermes 42 

18. Slab in Jewish Catacomb. 51 
rg. Epitaph of Martyrus 66 

20. Reputed Martyr Symbol. 77 

21. Epitaph of Lannus, a 

Martyr 98 

22. Secret Stairway in Cata- 

comb of Callixtus. . . . 101 

23. Diogenes the Fossor 133 

24. Fossor at Work 134 



Fig. Pa«« 

25. Tombs on Appian Way. 165 

26. Plan of Area in Callixtan 

Catacomb 171 

27. Plan of Crypt of St. Peter 

and St. Paul 187 

28. Crypt of St. Peter and St. 

Paul 188 

29. Section of Catacomb of 

Helena 191 

30. Entrance to Catacomb of 

St. Agnes 195 

31. Mithraic Painting 216 

32. Leaf Point 227 

33. Phonetic Symbol — Leo.. 229 

34. Phonetic Symbol — Por- 

cella 230 

35. Phonetic Symbol — Na- 

bira 230 

36. Wool- comber's Imple- 

ments 231 

37. Carpenter's Implements. 231 

38. Vine Dresser's Tomb .. . 232 

39. Symbolical Anchor 234 

40. Symbolical Ship 235 

41. Symbolical Palm and 

Crown 236 

42. Symbolical Doves 237 

43. Symbolical Dove 238 

44. Doves and Vase 238 

45. Locus Primi 238 

46. Symbolical Peacock. . . . 240 

47. The Good Shepherd. . . . 245 

48. Good Shepherd with 

Syrinx 246 

49. Symbolical Lamb 249 



List of Illustrations. 



50. 
51. 
52. 
53- 

54- 
55- 
56. 
57 

58. 
59- 
60. 
61. 
62. 
63. 

64. 
65. 

66. 

67. 
68. 
69. 
70. 
7i. 
72. 

73- 
74- 
75- 
76. 

77- 

78. 
79 



Page 

Symbolical Fish 255 

Symbolical Fish 256 

Fish and Anchor 256 

Fish and Dove 256 

Eucharistic Symbol 256 

Constantinian Monogram 265 
Early Christian Seal. . . . 266 
Various Forms of Mono- 
gram 267 

Epitaph of Tasaris 267 

Opisthographse 268 

Early Christian Seal 270 

Monogram and Cross. . . 270 
The Temptation and Fall 284 
Adam and Eve Receiving 

their Sentence 285 

Noah in the Ark 286 

Noah in the Ark 287 

Noah in the Ark, from 

Sarcophagus 287 

Apamean Medal 288 

Sacrifice of Isaac 289 

Sacrifice of Isaac 289 

Moses on Horeb 290 

Moses Receiving the Law 290 
Moses and the Baskets of 

Manna 291 

Moses Striking the Rock 291 
Moses Striking the Rock 291 
The Sufferings of Job. . . 293 

Ascension of Elijah 295 

The Three Hebrew Chil- 
dren 296 

The Three Hebrew Chil- 
dren 297 

The Three Hebrew Chil- 
dren 298 

Daniel in the Lions' Den 299 

The Story of Jonah 300 

Jonah, Moses, and Oranti 301 
Jonah and the Great Fish. 302 
Noah and Jonah 302 



Fie. Page 

85. Jonah's Gourd 304 

86. Adoration of Magi 305 

87. Adoration of Magi 306 

88. Orante 309 

89. Supposed Madonna ... 311 

90. Earliest Madonna 312 

91. Christ with the Doctors. 324 

92. Christ and the Woman 

of Samaria 325 

93. Paralytic Carrying Bed. 325 

94. Woman with Issue of 

Blood 326 

95. Miracle of Loaves and 

Fishes 327 

96. Opening the Eyes of the 

Blind 327 

97. Christ Blessing a Little 

Child 328 

98. Lazarus (rude) 330 

99. Lazarus (in fresco) 330 

100. Lazarus (in relief) 331 

101. Christ's Entry into Jeru- 

salem 331 

102. Peter's Denial of Christ . 332 

103. Pilate Washing his 

Hands 333 

104. Sculptured Sarcophagus 334 

105. Painted Chamber 339 

106. Oldest Extant Head of 

Christ (mosaic) 347 

107. God Symbolized by a 

Hand 356 

108. God as Pope 359 

109. Domestic Group in Gilt 

Glass 366 

no. Reputed Martyr Relic. 37 1 
in. Reputed Martyr Sym- 
bol 374 

112. Symbolical Lamp 377 

113. Symbolical Lamp 378 

114. Vases from the Cata- 

combs 381 



10 



List of Illustrations. 



Fig. Page 

115. Amphora from the Cat- 

acombs 382 

116. Earthen and Metal Ves- 

sels 383 

117. Early Christian Ring. . 385 

118. Early Christian Seal... 385 

119. Impressions of Seals... 386 

120. Children's Toys 387 

121. Statue of Good Shep- 

herd 390 

122. Epitaph of Gemella. . . 401 

123. Epitaph of Ligurius 

Successus 402 



Pig. Pags 

124. Epitaph of Domitius.. 402 

125. Epitaph Inverted 404 

126. Epitaph Reversed 404 

127. Epitaph of Cassta 405 

128. Triple Epitaph 435 

129. Belicia 500 

130. Chamber with Catechu- 

mens' Seats 531 

131. Baptismal Font 537 

132. Baptism of Our Lord. . 538 

133. Baptismal Scene 539 

134. Fresco of Early Chris- 
546 



THE 

CATACOMBS OF ROME. 



BOOK FIRST. 

STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS. 



CHAPTER I. 

STRUCTURE OF THE CATACOMBS. 

" Among the cultivated grounds not far from the city 
of Rome," says the Christian poet Prudentius, " lies a 
deep crypt, with dark recesses. A descending path, 
with winding steps, leads through the dim turnings, 
and the daylight, entering by the mouth of the cavern, 
somewhat illumines the first part of the way. But the 
darkness grows deeper as we advance, till we meet with 
openings, cut in the roof of the passages, admitting light 
from above. On all sides spreads the densely-woven 
labyrinth of paths, branching into caverned chapels and 
sepulchral halls ; and throughout the subterranean maze, 
through frequent openings, penetrates the light." * 

* Haud procul extremo culta ad pomceria vallo, 

Mersa latebrosis crypta patet foveis. . . . — Peristephanon, iv. 

The origin of the word Catacombs is exceedingly obscure. Father 
Marchi derives it from /card, down, and rufipoc, a tomb ; or from /card 
and Koi/ido, to sleep. Mommsen thinks it comes from /card and 
cumbo, part of decumbo, to lie down. According to Schneider {Lex. 



The Catacomb* of Rome. 




Fig. 1— Entrance to the Catacomb of St. Priscilla. 

This description of the Catacombs in the fourth cen- 
tury is equally applicable to their general appearance in 
the nineteenth. Their main features are unchanged, 
although time and decay have greatly impaired their 
structure and defaced their beauty. These Christian 
cemeteries are situated chiefly near the great roads 
leading from the city, and, for the most part, within a 
circle of three miles from the walls. From this circum- 
stance they have been compared to the " encampment 
of a Christian host besieging Pagan Rome, and driving 
inward its mines and trenches with an assurance of 



Gr<zk.) it is derived from kotu and KvfiSrj, a boat or canoe, from the 
resemblance of a sarcophagus to that object. The more probable 
derivation seems to the present writer to be from /card and nv/iBog, a 
hollow, as if descriptive of a subterranean excavation. The name 
was first given in the sixth century to a limited area beneath the 
Church of St. Sebastian : " Locus qui dicittir catacumbas." — S. Greg., 
Opp., torn, ii, ep. 30. It was afterward generically applied to all sub- 
terranean places of sepulture. The earliest writers who mention 
those of Rome call them cryptce, or crypts, or avmeteria — whence our 
word cemetery, literally, sleeping places, from Koifiucj, to slumber. 
Similar excavations have been found in Syria, Asia Minor, Cyprus, 
Crete, the /Egean Isles, Greece, Sicily, Naples, Malta, and France. 



Their Structure. 13 

final victory." The openings of the Catacombs are 
scattered over the Campagna, whose mournful desolation 
surrounds the city ; often among the mouldering mau- 
solea that rise, like stranded wrecks, above the rolling 
sea of verdure of the tomb-abounding plain.* On 
every side are tombs — tombs above and tombs be- 
low — the graves of contending races, the sepulchres 
of vanished generations : "Plena di sepoltura e la Cam- 
pagna,:^ 

How marvelous that beneath the remains of a proud 
pagan civilization exist the early monuments of that 
power before which the myths of paganism faded away as 
the spectres of darkness before the rising sun, and by 
which the religion and institutions of Rome were entirely 
changed. J Beneath the ruined palaces and temples, the 
crumbling tombs and dismantled villas, of the august 
mistress of the world, we find the<most interesting relics 
of early Christianity on the face of the earth. In trav- 
ersing these tangled labyrinths we are brought face 
to face with the primitive ages ; we are present at 
the worship of the infant Church ; we observe its rites ; 
we study its institutions ; we witness the deep emotions 
of the first believers as they commit their dead, often 

* These great roads for miles are lined with the sepulchral monu- 
ments of Rome's mighty dead, majestic even in decay. But only the 
wealthy could be entombed in those stately mausolea, or be wrapped 
in those "marble cerements." For the mass of the population co- 
lumbaria were provided, in whose narrow niches, like the compart- 
ments of a dove-cote — whence the name — the terra cotta urns con- 
taining their ashes were placed, sometimes to the number of six thou- 
sand in a single columbarium. They also contain sometimes the 
urns of the great. 

t Ariosto, Orlando Furioso. 

% Aringhi, in the elegant Latin ode prefixed to his great work, ex- 
claims, " Sub Roma Romam qutvrito " — Beneath Rome I seek the 
true Rome. 



14 The Catacombs if Rome. 

their martyred dead, to their last long resting-place; we 
decipher the touching record of their sorrow, of the 
holy hopes by which they were sustained, of " their faith 
triumphant o'er their fears," and of their assurance of 
the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting. 
We read in the testimony of the Catacombs the 
confession of faith of the early Christians, sometimes 
accompanied by the records of their persecution, the 
symbols of their martyrdom, and even the very instru- 
ments of their torture. For in these halls of silence 
and gloom slumbers the dust of many of the martyrs 
and confessors, who sealed their testimony with their 
blood during the sanguinary ages of persecution ; of 
many of the early bishops and pastors of the Church, 
who shepherded the flock of Christ amid the dangers of 
those troublous times ; of many who heard the words 
of life from teachers who lived in or near the apostolic 
age, perhaps from the lips of the apostles themselves. 
Indeed, if we would accept ancient tradition, we would 
even believe that the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul 
were laid to rest in those hallowed crypts — a true terra 
sancta, inferior in sacred interest only to that rock-hewn 
sepulchre consecrated evermore by the body of Our 
Lord. These reflections will lend to the study of the 
Catacombs an interest of the highest and intensest 
character. 

It is impossible to discover with exactness the extent 
of this vast necropolis on account of the number and 
intricacy of its tangled passages. That extent has 
been greatly exaggerated, however, by the monkish 
ciceroni, who guide visitors through these subterranean 
labyrinths.* There are some forty-two of these cerae- 

* Even so accurate and philosophical a writer as the late Professor 
Silliman reports on their authority that the Catacombs extent! twenty 



Their Structure. 15 

teries in all now known, many of which are only par- 
tially accessible. Signor Michele De Rossi, from an 
accurate survey of the Catacomb of Callixtus, computes 
the entire length of all the passages to be eight hundred 
and seventy-six thousand metres, or five hundred and 
eighty-seven geographical miles, equal to the entire 
length of Italy, from ^Etna's fires to the Alpine snows. 

The entrance to the abandoned Catacomb is some- 
times a low-browed aperture like a fox's burrow, almost 
concealed by long and tangled grass, and overshadowed 
by the melancholy cypress or gray-leaved ilex: Some- 
times an ancient arch can be discerned, as at the Cata- 
comb of St. Priscilla,* or the remains of the chamber for 
the celebration of the festivals of the martyrs, as at the 
entrance of the Cemetery of St. Domitilla. In a few in- 
stances it is through the crypts of an ancient basilica, as 
at St. Sebastian, and sometimes a little shrine or oratory 
covers the descent, as at St. Agnes, t St. Helena, \ and 
St. Cyriaca. In all cases there is a stairway, often 
long and steep, crumbling with time and worn with the 
feet of pious generations. The following illustration 
shows the entrance to the Catacomb of St. Prsetextatus 
on the Appian Way, trodden in the primitive ages by the 
early martyrs and confessors, or perhaps by the armed sol- 
diery of the oppressors, hunting to earth the persecuted 
flock of Christ. Here, too, in mediaeval times, the 



miles, to the port of Ostia, in one direction, and to Albano, twelve 
miles, in another. Visit to Europe, vol. i, p. 329. This is impossible, 
as will be shown, on account of the undulation of the ground, and the 
limited area of the volcanic tufa in which alone they can be excavated. 
The number of distinct Catacombs has also been magnified to sixty ; 
and Father Marchi estimated the aggregate length of passages to be 
nine hundred miles. 

* Fig. 1. f Fig. 30. % Fig. 29. 



15 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



martial clang 
of the armed 
knight may have 
awaked unwont- 
ed echoes among 
the hollow arch- 
es, or the glid- 
ing footstep of 
the sandaled 
monk scarce dis- 
/ turbed the si- 
lence as he 
passed. In later 
times pilgrims 
from every land 
have visited, 
with pious rever- 
ence or idle curi- 
osity, this early 
shrine of the 
Christian faith. 

The Cata- 
Fig. 2.-Entrance to St. Prsetextatus. CQmbs are exca . 

vated in the volcanic rock which abounds in the 
neighborhood of Rome. It is a granulated, grayish 
breccia, or tufa, as it is called, of a coarse, loose text- 
ure, easily cut with a knife, and bearing still the 
marks of the mattocks with which it was dug. In 
the firmer volcanic rock of Naples the excavations 
are larger and loftier than those of Rome ; but the 
latter, although they have less of apparent majesty, 
have more of funereal mystery. The Catacombs con- 
sist essentially of two parts — corridors and chambers, or 
cubicula. The corridors are long, narrow and intricate pas- 




Their Structure. 17 

sages, forming a complete underground net-work. 
They are for the most part straight, and intersect each 
other at approximate right angles. The accompanying 




Pig. 3— Part of Catacomb of Callixtus. 

map of part of the Catacomb of Callixtus will indicate 
the general plan of these subterranean galleries. 

The main corridors vary from three to five feet in 
width, but the lateral passages are much narrower, often 



i8 



The Cata.ombs of Romt 



affording room for but one person to pass. They will 
average about eight feet in height, though in some plac<rs 
as low as five or six, and in others, under peculiar cir- 
cumstances, reaching to twelve or fifteen feet. The 
ceiling is generally vaulted, though sometimes flat ; and 
the floor, though for the most part level, has occasionally 
a slight incline, or even a few steps, caused by the junc- 




Eig. 4— Gallery with Tombs, 
tion of areas of different levels, as hereafter explained. 
The walls are generally of the naked tufa, though some- 
times plastered ; and where they have given way are 
occasionally strengthened with masonry. At the coi- 
ners of these passages there are frequently niches, in 



Their Structure. 19 

which lamps were placed, without which, indeed, the 
Catacombs must have been an impenetrable labyrinth. 
Cardinal Wiseman recounts a touching legend of a 
young girl who was employed as a guide to the places 
of worship in the Catacombs because, on account 
of her blindness, their sombre avenues were as famil- 
iar to her accustomed feet as the streets of Rome to 
others. 

Both sides of the corridors are thickly lined with 
loculi or graves, which have somewhat the appearance 
of berths in a ship, or of the shelves in a grocer's shop ; 
but the contents are the bones and ashes of the dead, 
and for labels we have their epitaphs. Figure 4 will illus- 
trate the general character of these galleries and loculi. 

The following engraving, after a sketch by Maitland, 
shows a gallery wider and more rudely excavated. On 
the right hand is seen a passage blocked up with stones, 
as was frequently done, to prevent accident. The day- 
light is seen pouring in at the further end of the gallery, 
as described by Prudentius,* and rendering visible the 
rifled graves. 

It is evident that the principle followed in the forma- 
tion of these galleries and loculi was the securing of the 
greatest amount of space for graves with the least ex- 
cavation. Hence the passages are made as narrow as 
possible. The graves are also as close together as the fri- 
able nature of the tufa will permit, and are made to suit 
the shape of the body, narrow at the feet, broader at 
the shoulders, and often with a semi-circular excavation 
for the head, so as to avoid any superfluous removal of 
tufa. Sometimes the loculi were made large enough to 
hold two, three, or even four bodies, which were often 

* Primas namque fores summo terms infrat hiatu 

IUustratque dies limina vestibuli. — •Peristcphanon, ii. 



20 The Catacombs of Rome. 




Fig. 5.— Interior of Corridor. 

placed with the head of one toward the feet of the 
other, in order to economize space. These were called 
bisomi, trisomi, and quadrisomi, respectively. The 
graves were apparently made as required, probably with 
the corpse lying beside them, as some unexcavated spaces 
have been observed traced in outline with chalk or paint 
upon the walls. Almost every inch of available space 
is occupied, and sometimes, though rarely, graves art* 



Their Structure. 21 

dug in the floor. The loculi are of all sizes, from that 
of the infant of an hour to that of an adult man. But 
here, as in every place of burial, the vast preponderance 
of children's graves is striking. How many blighted 
buds there are for every full-blown flower or ripened fruit ! 

Sometimes the loculi were excavated with mathemat- 
ical precision. An example occurs in the Cemetery of 
St. Cyriaca, where at one end of a gallery is a tier of 
eight small graves for infants, then eight, somewhat 
larger, for children from about seven to twelve, then seven 
more, apparently for adult females, and lastly, a tier of 
six for full-grown men, occupying the entire height of 
the wall. Generally, however, a less regular arrange- 
ment was observed, and the graves of the young and old 
were intermixed, without any definite order. 

It is difficult, if not impossible, to compute the num- 
ber of graves in these vast cemeteries. Some seventy 
thousand have been counted, but they are a mere frac- 
tion of the whole, as only a small part of this great ne- 
cropolis has been explored. From lengthened observa- 
tion Father Marchi estimates the average number of 
graves to be ten, five on each side, for every seven feet 
of gallery. Upon this basis he computed the entire 
number in the Catacombs to be seven millions ! The 
more accurate estimate of their extent made by Sig. 
Michele De Rossi would allow room for nearly four mill- 
ions of graves, or, more exactly, about three million 
eight hundred and thirty-one thousand.* This seems 

* In the single crypt of St. Lucina, one hundred feet by one hun- 
dred and eighty, De Rossi counted over seven hundred loculi, and esti- 
mated that nearly twice as many were destroyed, giving a total of 
two thousand graves in this area. The same space, with our mode 
of interment, would not accommodate over half the number, even 
though placed as close together as possible, without any room for 



2.2 The Catacombs of Rome 

almost incredible ; but we know that for at least three 
hundred years, or for ten generations, the entire Chris- 
tian population of Rome was buried here. And that 
population, as we shall see, was, even at an early period, 
of considerable size. In the time of persecution, too. 
the Christians were hurried to the tomb in crowds. In 
this silent city of the dead we are surrounded by a 
"mighty cloud of witnesses," "a multitude which no 
man can number," whose names, unrecorded on earth, 
are written in the Book of Life. For every one who 
walks the streets of Rome to-day are hundreds of its 
former inhabitants calmly sleeping in this vast encamp- 
ment of death around its walls — "each in his narrow 
cell forever laid."* Till the archangel awake them 
they slumber. " It is scarcely known," says Prudentius, 
" how full Rome is of buried saints — how richly her soil 
abounds in holy sepulchres." 

These graves were once all hermetically sealed by 
slabs of marble, or tiles of terra cotta. The former were 
generally of one piece, which fitted into a groove or 
mortice cut in the rock at the grave's mouth, and were 
securely cemented to their places, as, indeed, was abso- 
lutely necessary, from the open character of the galleries 
in which the graves were placed. Sometimes fragments 
of heathen tombstones or altars were used for this 
purpose. The tiles were generally smaller, two or 
three being required for an adult grave. They were 
arranged in panels, and were cemented with plaster, on 
which a name or symbol was often rudely scratched with 
a trowel while soft, as in the following illustration. Most 

Compare Bryant's Thanatopsis : 

"All that tread- 
The globe are but a handful to the tribes 
That slumber in its bosom." 



Their Structure. 



23 



of these slabs and tiles have disappeared, and many of" 
the graves have long been rifled of their contents. In 
others may still be seen the mouldering skeleton of what 
was once man in his strength, woman in her beauty, or 
a child in its innocence and glee. The annexed engrav- 
ing exhibits two graves, one of which is partially open, 
exposing the skeleton which has reposed on its rocky 
bed for probably over fifteen centuries. 



liiai^ 




Fig. 6.— Loculi— Open and Closed. 



If these bones be touched they will generally crumble 
into a white, flaky powder. D'Agincourt copied a tomb 
(Fig. 7) in which this " dry dust of death " still retained 
the outline of a human skeleton. Verily, "Pulvis et 
umbra sumus." Sometimes, however, possibly from some 
constitutional peculiarity, the bones remain quite firm 
notwithstanding the lapse of so many centuries. De 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



Valeria :dqr/vmt 

IN _\P A( ^II« 



^wE^^ Sf 



MMMiii|it«iiM^W:,!illl«; 



Fig. 7.— Valeria Sleeps in Peace. 

Rossi states that he has assisted at the removal of a body 
from the Catacombs to a church two miles distant with- 
out the displacement of a single bone.* The age of the 
deceased and the nature of the ground also affect the 
condition in which the remains are found. Of the bodies 
of children nothing but dust remains. Where the poz- 
zolana is damp, the bones are often well preserved ; and 
where water has infiltrated, a partial petrifaction some- 
times occurs. f Campana describes the opening of a 
hermetically sealed sarcophagus, which revealed the 
undisturbed body clad in funeral robes, and wearing the 
ornaments of life ; but while he gazed it suddenly dis- 
solved to dust before his eyes. Sometimes the sarcoph- 
agus was placed behind a perforated slab of marble, as 
shown in the following example, given by Maitland. 
The lower part of the slab is broken. 

The other essential constituent of the Catacombs, 
besides the galleries already described, consists of the 
cubicula.\ These are chambers excavated in the tufa 

* Rom. Sott., ii, 127. 

t D'Agincourt, Histoire de tart par les Monumens, i, 20. 

% Literally, little sleeping chambers, from cubo, I lie down. The 
same name was also given to the cells for meditation and prayer at- 
tached to the Church of Nola. Pnulin.. ep. 12, ad Sever. 



Their Structure. 



25 




Fig. 8.— Arcosolium with Perforated Slab. 



on either side of the galleries, with which they commu 
nicate by doors, as seen in Fig. 4. These often bear the 
character of family vaults, and are lined with graves, 
like the corridors without. They are generally square 
or rectangular, but sometimes octagonal or circular. 
They were probably used as mortuary chapels, for th* 
celebration of funeral service, and for the administra- 
tion of the eucharist near the tombs of the martyrs on 
the anniversaries of their death. They were too small 
to be used for regular worship, except perhaps in time 
of persecution. They are often not more than eight or 
ten feet square. Even the so-called " Papal Crypt," a 
chamber of peculiar sanctity, is only eleven by fourteen 



26 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




feet ; and that 
of St. Cecilia 
adj oiningit, 
one of a large 
size, is less than 
twenty feet 
square. Even 
the largest 
would not ac- 
comm o date 
more than a 
few dozen per- 
s o n s. These 
chambers are 
generally fac- 
ing one anoth- 
er on opposite 
sides of a gal- 
lery, as in the 
annexed plan 
of two cubicula 
in the Cata- 
comb of Cal- 
lixtus. 

It is thought 
that in the cel- 
ebration of 
worship one 
of these chambers was designed for men and the other 
for women. Sometimes separate passages to the chapels 
and distinct entrances to the Catacombs seem intended 
to facilitate this separation of the sexes. Sometimes 
three, or even as many as five, cubicula, as .in one example 
in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, were placed on the same 



-f llf Id t \ 


p» 






Hlpr" 


■\ 




\ 










u 






i^~n 





Fig. 9.— Plan of Double Chamber. 



Their Structure. 



27 



axial line, and formed one continu- 
ous suite of chambers. The accom- 
panying section of what is known 
as " The Chapel of Two Halls," in 
the Catacomb of St. Praetextatus, il- 
lustrates this : a is the main gallery, 
d a large cubiculum known as " The 
Women's Hall," to the right, and 
to the left b, a hexagonal vaulted 
room with a smaller chamber, c ? 
opening from it. The length of the 
entire range from G to f, according 
to the accurate measurement of 
M. Perret, is twenty-three and a 
half metres, or nearly seventy-seven 
feet. The larger engraving (Fig. 
n) gives a perspective view look- 
ing toward the left of the hexagonal 
chamber,(D. Fig. 10,) and the smaller 
one, c, opening from it By means 
of these connected chambers the 
Christians were enabled in times of 
persecution to assemble for wor- 
ship in these " dens and caves of 
the earth," surrounded by the slum- 
bering bodies of the holy dead. 

The cubiada had vaulted roofs, and were sometimes 
plastered or cased with marble and paved with tiles, or 
though rarely, with mosaic. These, however, were gen- 
erally additions of later date than the original construc- 
tion, as were also the semi-detached columns in the 
angles, with stucco capitals and bases, as indicated in 
Fig. 9, and shown more clearly in the following engrav- 
ing, which is a perspective view of the lower chamber 




28 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




Their Structure. 



29 




Fig. 12.— Vaulted Chamber with Columns. 

in Fig. 9. The walls and ceiling were often covered 
with fresco paintings, frequently of elegant design, to be 
hereafter described.* Sometimes, as in some examples 
in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, tufa or marble seats are 
ranged around the chamber, and chairs are hewn out 
of the solid rock.f These chambers were used probably 
for the instruction of catechumens. Occasionally the 
cubiculum terminates in a semicircular recess, as in the 
upper chamber in Fig. 9. These probably gave rise to 
the apse in early Christian architecture, of which a good 
example is found in the Church of St. Clement, one of 
the most ancient Christian edifices in Rome. Niches 
and shelves for lamps, an absolute necessity in the per 
petual darkness that there reigns, frequently occur, such 
as may be seen in Italian houses to-day. Without th? 
least authority, some Roman Catholic writers have de 

* Book II. 

+ See Fig. 130 and context, where the entire subject is discussei 



3° 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



scribed these as closets for priestly vestments and 
shelves for pictures. 

A peculiar form of grave common in these chambers, 
as well as in the galleries, is that known as the arcosoliutn, 
or arched tomb. It consists of a recess in the wall, 
having a grave, often double or triple, excavated in the 
tufa, or built with masonry, like a solid sarcophagus, and 
closed with a marble slab. These are seen in the plan, 
Fig. 9, in the section, Fig. 10, at G and E in Fig. 
15, and in perspective in Figs, n and 12. Some- 
times the recess is rectangular instead of arched, and 
is then called by De Rossi sepolcro a mensa, or table tomb. 
Sometimes the arch was segmental, especially when 
constructed of masonry.* An example of both sorts is 




Fig 1 . 1 3.— Cubiculum with Arcosolia. 
seen in the accompanying engraving of a cubiculum in the 
Catacomb of St. Praetextatus. The narrow door into the 
corridor is also seen, and the stucco capitals and bases 
of the columns*. In course of time these arcosolia were 
* See in the Cemetery of St. Helena, Fig. 29. 



Their Structure. 31 

used as altars for the celebration of the eucharist, and 
eventually grave abuses arose from the superstitious 
/eneration paid to the relics of the martyr or confessor 
interred therein. Frequently, also, the back of this 
arched recess was pierced with graves of a later date, 
often directly through a painting,* in order to obtain a 
resting place near the bodies of the saints. 

Hitherto only one level of the Catacombs has been 
described, but frequently "beneath this depth there 
is a lower deep," or even three or four tiers of galler- 
ies, excavated as the upper ones became filled with 
graves. Thus there are sometimes as many as five 
stories, or piatii, as they are called, one. beneath the 
other. These are carefully maintained horizontal, to 
avoid breaking through the floor of the one above or 
the roof of the one below, the danger of which would 
be very great if the strict level were departed from. 
For the same reason the different piani were generally 
separated by a thick stratum of solid tufa. The rela- 
tive position of these levels is shown by the following 
engraving, reduced from De Rossi. It represents a sec- 
tion of the Crypt of St. Lucina, a part of the Ceme- 
tery of Callixtus. The dark colored stratum, marked ] 
in the margin, is entirely made up of the debris of ancient 
monuments, buildings, and other materials accumulated 
in the course of ages in this place to the depth of eight 
feet. It has completely buried the ancient roads, except 
where excavated, as shown in the engraving. The next 
stratum, 11, is of solid grayish tufa. In this the first level 
ox piano, (f>, is excavated. It is not more than twenty 
feet below the surface, and in many places only half 
that depth. Consequently its area is comparatively lim- 
ited, because if extended it would have run out into the 
* As in Fig. 12, and more strikingly in Fig 76. 



32 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




Fig. 14.— Section of the Catacomb of Callixtus. 



open air, from the sloping of the ground in which it is 
dug. The next stratum, in, is softer and more easily- 
worked, and therefore is that in which are found the 
most important and extensive piani of galleries. The 
cross sections P and X, and the longitudinal section u, 
will show how the lower surface of the more solid stra- 
tum above was made the ceiling of these galleries, in 
order to lessen the danger of its falling. At b vvill be 
observed the employment of masonry to strengthen the 



Their Structure. 33 

crumbling walls of the friable tufa. The descent of a 
few steps, some of which have been worn away, will also 
be noticed at u. At iv a more rocky stratum is found, 
called tufa lit/ioide, below which the ancient fossors* 
had to go to find suitable material for the excavation of 
the third piano. This was found in stratum v, in which 
are two piani at different levels. The lower one is not 
vertically beneath that here represented above it, but at 
some little distance. It is here shown, to exhibit at one 
view a section of all the stories of this Catacomb. The 
upper piano, g, consists of low and narrow galleries, but 
the lower one, marked rrr, seventy-one feet beneath 
the surface of the ground, is of great extent. Several 
of the loculi, it will be perceived, are built of masonry, 
in consequence of the crumbling nature of the soil. 
The three large arcosolia will also be observed. The 
floor of this piano rests on a somewhat firmer stratum, 
in which is still another level of galleries, Q Q Q, ten feet 
lower down. This lower level is generally subject to 
inundation by water, in consequence of the periodical 
rising of the adjacent Almone, the level of which is 
shown at a depth of one hundred and four feet, and 
that of the Tiber at one hundred and thirty-one feet, 
below the surface. 

To secure immunity from dampness, which would ac- 
celerate decomposition and corrupt the atmosphere, the 
Catacombs were generally excavated in high ground in 
the undulating hills around the city, never crossing 
the intervening depressions or valleys. There is, there- 
fore, no connection between the different cemeteries ex- 
cept where they happen to be contiguous, nor, as has 
been asserted, with the churches of Rome. Where a 

* An organized body of diggers, by whom the Catacombs were ex- 
cavated. See Book III, chap. iv. 
3 



34 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Catacomb has been excavated in low ground, as in the 
exceptional case of that of Castulo on the Via Labicana, 
the water has rendered it completely inaccessible. 

Access to these different piani is gained by stairways, 
which are sometimes covered with tile or marble, or 
built with masonry, or by shafts. The awful silence and 
almost palpable darkness of these deepest dungeons is 
absolutely appalling. They are fitly described by the 
epithet applied by Dante to the realms of eternal gloom : 
loco cT ogni luce muto — a spot mute of all light. Here 
death reigns supreme. Not even so much as a lizard 
or a bat has penetrated these obscure recesses. Nought 
but skulls and skeletons, dust and ashes, are on every side. 
The air is impure and deadly, and difficult to breathe. 
" The cursed dew of the dungeon's damp " distills from 
the walls, and a sense of oppression, like the patriarch's 
"horror of great darkness," broods over the scene. 

The Catacombs were ventilated and partially lighted 
by numerous openings variously called spiragli, or breath- 
ing-holes, and luminari, or light-holes. They were also 
probably used for the removal of the excavated material 
from those parts remote from the entrance. They were 
even more necessary for the admission of air than of 
light. Were it not for these the number of burning 
lamps, the multitude of dead bodies, no matter how 
carefully the loculi were cemented, and the opening of 
bisomi, or double graves, for interments, would create an 
insupportable atmosphere. They were generally in the 
line of junction between two cubicula, a branch of the 
luminare entering each chamber, as shown in the accom- 
panying section of a portion of the Catacomb of Sts. 
Marcellinus and Peter. Sometimes, indeed, four, or 
even more, cubicula were ventilated and partially lighted 
by the same shaft. De Rossi mentions one luminare in 



Thir Structure. 



35 




Fig. 15— Section of Cubicula with Luminare. 

the recently discovered Cemetery of St. Balbina, which 
is not square but hexagonal, or nearly so, and which di- 
vides into eight branches, illumining as many separate 
chambers or galleries. Sometimes a funnel-shaped 
luminare reaches to the lowest piano j but from the 
faint rays that feebly struggle to those gloomy depths 
there comes "no light, but rather darkness visible." In 
the upper levels, however, some cubicula are well lighted 
by large openings. The brilliant Italian sunshine to-day 
lights up the pictured figures on the wall as it must have- 
illumined with its strong Rembrandt light, the fair brow 
of the Christian maiden, the silvery hair of the vener- 
able pastor, or the calm face of the holy dead waiting 
for interment in those early centuries so long ago. 
These luminari are often two feet square at the top, and 
wider as they descend ; sometimes they are cylindrical in 
shape, as in the Catacomb of St. Helena.* The external 
* See Fig. 29. 



$6 The Catacombs of Rome. 

openings, often concealed by grass and weeds, are very 
numerous throughout the Campagna near the city, and 
are often dangerous to the unwary rider. In almost 
every vineyard between the Pincian and Salarian roads 
they may be found, and through them an entrance into 
the Catacombs may frequently be effected. After the 
persecution had ceased, and there was no longer need 
for concealment, their number was increased, and they 
were made of a larger size, and frequently lined with 
masonry, or plastered and frescoed. In the Catacombs 
of St. Agnes and of Callixtus are several in a very good 
state of preservation. 

We have already seen the contemporary account 
of the Catacombs by Prudentius, in the fourth century. 
Jerome also describes their appearance at the same pe- 
riod in words which are almost equally applicable to-day. 
" When I was a boy, being educated at Rome," he says, 
" I used every Sunday, in company with others of my own 
age and tastes, to visit the sepulchres of the apostles 
and martyrs, and to go into the crypts dug in the heart 
of the earth. The walls on either side are lined with 
bodies of the dead, and so intense is the darkness as to 
seemingly fulfill the words of the prophet, ' They go 
down alive to Hades.' Here and there is light let in to 
mitigate the gloom. As we advance the words of the 
poet are brought to mind: 'Horror on all sides; the 
very silence fills the soul with dread.' "* 

It must not be supposed that the features above de- 

* "Dumessem Romae puer, et liberalibus studiis erudirer, solebam 
cum ceteris ejusdem aetatis et propositi, diebus Dominicis sepulchra 
apostolorum et martyrum circuire, crebroque cryptas ingredi, quae 
in terrarum profunda defossse, ex utraque parte ingredientium per 
parietes corpora sepultorum, . . . ' Horror ubique amnios, simul 
ipsa silentia tenent.' " — Hieron. in Ezec/i., Cap. xl. 



Their Structure. 37 

scribed are always perfectly exhibited. They are often 
obscured and obliterated by the lapse of time, and by 
earthquakes, inundations, and other destructive agen- 
cies of nature. The stairways are often broken and in- 
terrupted, and the corridors blocked up by the falling in 
of the roof, where it has been carried too near the sur- 
face, or by the crumbling of the walls, and sometimes 
apparently by design during the age of persecution. 
The rains of a thousand winters have washed tons of 
earth down the luminari, destroyed the symmetry of the 
openings, and completely filled the galleries with debris. 
The natural dampness of the situation, and the smoke 
of the lamps of the early worshipers, or the torches of 
more recent visitors, and sometimes incrustations of 
nitre, have impaired or destroyed the beauty of many 
of the paintings. The hand of the spoiler has in many 
cases completed the work of devastation. The rifled 
graves and broken tablets show where piety or supersti- 
tion has removed the relics of the dead, or where idle 
curiosity has wantonly mutilated their monuments. 

The present extent of the Catacombs is the result, 
not of primary intention, but of the contact of sepa- 
rate areas of comparatively limited original size, and 
the inosculation, as it were, of their distinct galleries. 
This is apparent from the fact that this contact and 
junction sometimes take place between areas of differ- 
ent levels, causing a break in their horizontal continuity, 
like the " faults " or dislocations common in geological 
strata. Sometimes, too, this junction between two ad- 
jacent areas takes place through a tier of graves, and 
evidently formed no part of the original design. These 
separate areas were originally, as we shall see in the 
following chapter, private burial places in the vine- 
yards of wealthy Christian converts, and were early 



38 The Catacombs of Rome. 

made available for the interment of the poorer members 
of the infant Church. In accordance with a common 
Roman usage the ground thus set apart for the purpose 
of sepulture was placed under the protection of the law, 
and was accurately defined, to secure it from trespass 
or violation. While the protection of the law was en 
joyed, the excavations were strictly confined within tht 
limits of these areas, and lower piani were dug rather 
than transgress the boundary. But when that protection 
was withdrawn the galleries were horizontally extended, 
often for the purpose of facilitating escape, and connec- 
tions were made with adjacent areas, till the whole be- 
came an intricate labyrinth of passages and chambers. 
These areas are still further distinguished by certain 
peculiarities in the inscriptions, cabicula, and paintings, 
and were greatly modified by subsequent constructions. 

It has till recently been thought that the Catacombs 
were originally excavations made by the Romans for 
the extraction of sand and other building material, and 
afterward adopted by the Christians as places of refuge, 
and eventually of sepulture and worship. This opinion 
was founded on a few misunderstood classical allusions 
and statements in ancient ecclesiastial writers, and on 
a misinterpretation of certain accidental features of the 
Catacombs themselves. It was held, nevertheless, by 
such eminent authorities as Baronius, Severano, Aringhi, 
Bottari, D'Agincourt, and Raoul-Rochette. Padre 
Marchi first rejected this theory of construction, and 
the brothers De Rossi have completely refuted it. An 
examination of the material in which these sand pits 
and stone quarries and the Catacombs were respect- 
ively excavated, as well as of their structural differ- 
ences, will show their entirely distinct character. 

The surface of the Campagna, especially of that par 



Their Structure. 39 

occupied by the Catacombs, is almost exclusively of vol- 
canic origin. The most ancient and lowest stratum of 
this igneous formation is a compact conglomerate known 
as tufa lithoide. It was extensively quarried for build 
ing, and the massive blocks of the Cloaca Maxima and 
the ancient wall of Romulus attest the durability of its 
character. Upon this rest stratified beds of volcanic 
ashes, pumice, and scoria, often consolidated with water, 
but of a substance much less firm than that of the tufa 
lithoide, and called tufa granolare. In insulated beds, 
rarely of considerable extent, in this latter- formation, 
occurs another material, known as pozzolana. It con- 
sists of volcanic ashes deposited on dry land, and still 
existing in an unconsolidated condition. This is the ma- 
terial of the celebrated Roman cement, which holds 
together to this day the massy structures of ancient 
Rome. It was conveyed for building purposes as far 
as Constantinople, and the pier on the Tiber from which 
it was shipped is still called the Porto di Pozzolana. 
It is in these latter deposits exclusively that the arenaria, 
or sand pits, are found. The tufa granolare is too firm, 
and contains too large a proportion of earth, to use as 
sand, and is yet too friable for building purposes. Yet 
it is in this material, entirely worthless for any eco- 
nomic use, that the Catacombs are almost exclusively ex- 
cavated ; while the tufa lithoide and the pozzolana are 
both carefully avoided where possible, the one as too 
hard and the other as too soft for purposes of Christian 
sepulture. Sometimes, indeed, as at the cemeteries of 
St. Pontianus and St. Valentinus, for special reasons, 
Catacombs were excavated in less suitable material ; 
but still the substance removed — a shelly marl — was 
economically useless, and the galleries had to be sup- 
ported by solid masonry. The tufa granolare, on the 



40 The Catacombs of Rome. 

contrary, was admirably adapted for the construction of 
these subterranean cemeteries. It could be easily dug 
with a mattock, yet was firm enough to be hollowed into 
loculi and chambers ; and its porous character made the 
chambers dry and wholesome for purposes of assem- 
bly, which was of the utmost importance in view of the 
vast number of bodies interred in these recesses. 

The differences of structure between the quarries or 
arenaria and the Catacombs are no less striking. To 
this day, the vast grottoes from which the material for 
the building of the Coliseum was hewn, most probably 
by the Jewish prisoners of Titus, may still -be seen on 
the Ccelian hill. It is said that in those gloomy vaults 
were kept the fierce Numidian lions and leopards 
whose conflicts with the Christian martyrs furnished the 
savage pastime of the Roman amphitheatre. But noth- 
ing can less resemble the narrow and winding passages 
of the Catacombs than those tremendous caverns. 

Nor is there any greater resemblance in the excava- 
tions of the arenaria. These are large and lofty vaults, 
from sixteen to twenty feet wide, the arch of which 
often springs directly from the floor, so as to give the 
largest amount of sand with the least labour of excava- 
tion. The object was to remove as much material as 
possible ; hence there was often only enough left to sup- 
port the roof. The spacious passages of the arenaria 
run in curved lines, avoiding sharp angles, ?o as to allow 
the free passage of the carts which carried away the 
excavated sand. In the Catacombs, on the contrary, 
as little material as possible was removed ; hence the 
galleries are generally not more than three, or some- 
times only two, feet wide, and run for the most part in 
straight lines, often crossing each other at quite acute 
angles, so that only very narrow carts can be used in 



Their Structure. 41 

cleaning out the accumulated debris of centuries — a very 
tedious process, which greatly increases the cost of 
exploration. The walls, moreover, are always vertical, 
and the roof sometimes quite flat, or only slightly arched. 
The wide difference in the principle of construction is 
obvious. The great object in the Catacombs has been 
to obtain the maximum of wall-surface, for the inter- 
ment of the dead in the loculi with which the galleries 
are lined throughout, with the minimum of excavation. 
The structural difference will at once be seen by com- 
paring the irregular windings of the small arenarium 
represented in the upper part of Figs. 3 and 26 with 
the straight and symmetrical galleries of the adjacent 
Catacomb. Connected with the Catacomb of St. Agnes 
is an extensive arenarium, whose spacious, grotto-like 
appearance is very different from that of the narrow se- 
pulchral galleries beneath. In the floor of this arenarium 
is a square shaft leading to the Catacomb, in which 
Dr. Northcote conjectures there was formerly a wind- 
lass for removing the excavated material. There are 
also footholes, for climbing the sides of the shaft, cut in 
the solid tufa, perhaps as a means of escape in the time 
of persecution. This arenarium, which was probably 
worked out and abandoned long before its connection 
with the Catacomb, may have been employed as a 
masked entrance to its crypts, when the more public 
one could not be safely used. Its spacious vaults may 
also have been a receptacle for the broken tufa removed 
from the galleries beneath. 

Many of these arenaria may be observed excavated 
in the hill-sides near Rome ; but except when incident- 
ally forming part of a Catacomb, they have never been 
found to contain a single grave. Indeed, in conse- 
quence of the utter unfitness of the pozzolana for the 



4 2 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



purposes of Christian sepulture, the intrusion of a de- 
posit of that material into the area of a Catacomb pre- 
vented the extension or necessitated the diversion of 
its galleries. Moreover, where the attempt has been 
made to convert an arenarium into a Christian cemetery, 
the changes which have been made show conclusively 
its original unfitness for the latter purpose. The accom- 
panying section of a gallery in 
the Catacomb of St. Hermes 
will exhibit the structural ad- 
ditions necessary to adopt an 
arenarium for Christian sep- 
ulture. The sides of the 
semi-eliptical vault had to 
be built up with brick-work, 
leaving only a narrow passage 

Fig. 16.-Gallery in St. Hermes. in thg middle _ The hculi 

were spaces left in the masonry, in which the mouldering 
skeletons may still be seen. The openings were 
closed with slabs in the usual manner, as shown in 





Fig. 17.— Part of Wall of Gallery in St, Hermes. 

the elevation, (Fig. 17,) except at the top, where they 
cover the grave obliquely, like the roof of a house. 
The vault is often arched with brick-work, and at the 



Their S true hire. 43 

intersection of the galleries has sometimes to be sup- 
ported by a solid pier of masonry. In part of an an- 
cient arenarium converted into a cemetery in the Cata- 
comb of St. Priscilla similar constructions may be seen. 
The long walls and numerous pillars of brick-work 
concealing and sustaining the tufa, and the irregular 
windings of the passages, show at once the vast differ- 
ence between the arenarium and the Catacomb, and 
the immense labour and expense required to convert 
the former into the latter. 

It has been urged in objection to this theory, that the 
difficulty of secretly disposing of at least a hundred 
millions of cubic feet of refuse material taken from the 
Catacombs must have been exceedingly great, unless it 
could be removed under cover of employment for some 
economic purpose. It will be shown, however, that 
secrecy was not always necessary, as has been assumed, 
but that, on the contrary, the Christian right of sepulture 
was for a long time legally recognized by the Pagan 
Emperors; and that the Catacombs continued to be 
publicly used for a considerable time after the establish- 
ment of Christianity on the throne of the Caesars. Dur- 
ing the exacerbations of persecution there is evidence 
that the excavated material was deposited in the gal- 
eries already filled with graves, or, as we have seen, in 
the spacious vaults of adjacent arenaria. If the Cata- 
combs were merely excavations for sand or stone, as has 
been asserted, we ought to find many of their narrow 
galleries destitute of tombs, and many of the arenaria 
containing them ; whereas every yard of the former is 
occupied with graves, and not a single grave is found in 
the latter, nor do they contain a single example of a 
mural painting or inscription. The conclusion is irresist- 
ible that the Catacombs proper were created exclusively 



44 The Catacombs of Rome. 

for the purpose of Christian buria 1 , and in no case were 
of Pagan construction. 

The erroneous theory here combated has arisen, as 
we have said, chiefly from certain classical allusions to 
the arenaria, and from passages in the ancient ecclesi- 
astical records describing the burial places of the mar- 
tyrs, as in cryfitis arenariis, in arenario, or ad arenas. Some 
of these localities, however, have been identified beyond 
question, and found to consist merely of a sandy kind 
of rock, and not at all of the true pozzolana. In others 
a vein of pozzolana does actually occur in the Catacombs, 
or they are connected with ancient arenaria, as at St. 
Agnes and at Calixtus. In the other instances the 
localities are either yet unrecognized, or the expression 
merely implies that the cemetery was near the sand pits 
— juxta arenarium, or in loco qui dicitur ad Arenas. 

The mere technical description of the Catacombs, 
however, gives no idea of the thrilling interest felt in 
traversing their long-drawn corridors and vaulted halls. 
As the pilgrim to this shrine of the primitive faith visits 
these chambers of silence and gloom, accompanied by 
a serge -clad, sandaled monk,* he seems like the Tuscan 
poet wandering through the realms of darkness with 
his shadowy guide. 

" Ora sen' va per un segreto calle 

Tra 1' muro della terra." f 

His footsteps echo strangely down .the distant passages 
and hollow vaults, dying gradually away in the solemn 
stillness of this valley of the shadow of death. The 

* Unfortunately for Protestant visitors most of the Catacombs are 
open for inspection only on Sunday, when the work of exploration 
is suspended. 

f " And now through narrow, gloomy paths we go, 
'Tween walls of earth and tombs." — Inferno. 



Their Structure. 45 

gra\ es yawn weirdly as he passes, torch in hand. The 
flame struggles feebly with the thickening darkness, 
vaguely revealing the unfleshed skeletons on either side, 
till its redness fades to sickly white, like that fioco Iwne, * 
that pale light, by which Dante saw the crowding ghosts 
upon the shores of Acheron. Deep mysterious shadows 
crouch around, and the dim perspective, lined with the 
sepuchral niches of the silent community of the dead, 
stretch on in an apparently unending vista. The very 
air seems oppressive and stifling, and laden with the dry 
dust of death. The vast extent and population of this 
great necropolis overwhelm the imagination, and bring 
to mind Petrarch's melancholy line — 

" Piena di morti tutta la campagna." f 

Almost appalling in its awe and solemnity is the sud- 
den transition from the busy city of the living to the 
silent city of the dead ; from the golden glory of the 
Italian sunlight to the funereal gloom of these sombre 
vaults. The sacred influence of the place subdues the 
soul to tender emotions. The fading pictures en the 
walls and the pious epitaphs of the departed breathe 
on every side an atmosphere of faith and hope, and 
awaken a sense of spiritual kinship that overleaps the 
intervening centuries. We speak with bated breath 
and in whispered tones, and thought is busy with the 
past. It is impossible not to feel strangely moved while 
gazing on the crumbling relics of mortality committed 
ages ago, with pious care and many tears, to their last, 
Long rest. 

" It seems as if we had the sleepers known." $ 

* " Com' io discerno perlo fioco lume." — Inferno. 
t " Full of the dead this far extending field." 
% Childe Harold, iv, 104. 



46 The Catacombs of Rome. 

We see the mother, the while her heart is wrung with 
anguish, laying on its stony bed — rude couch for such a 
tender thing — the little form that she had cherished in 
her warm embrace. We behold the persecuted flock 
following, it may be, the mangled remains of the faith- 
ful pastor and valiant martyr for the truth, which at the 
risk of their lives they have stealthily gathered at dead 
of night. With holy hymns,* broken by their sobs, they 
commit his mutilated body to the grave,, where after 
life's long toil he sleepeth well. We hear the Christian 
chant, the funeral plaint, the pleading tones of prayer, 
and the words of holy consolation and of lofty hope 
with which the dead in Christ are laid to rest. A mo- 
ment, and — the spell is broken, the past has vanished 
and stern reality becomes again a presence. Ruin and 
desolation and decay are all around. 

The exploration of these worse than Daedalian laby- 
rinths is not unattended with danger. That intrepid 
investigator, Bosio, was several times well nigh lost in their 
mysterious depths. That disaster really happened to 
M. Roberts, a young French artist, whose adventure has 
been wrought into an exciting scene in Hans Andersen's 
tale, " The Improvisatore," and forms an episode in 
the Abbe de Lille's poem, u L 1 Imagination." Inspired 
by the enthusiasm of his profession, he attempted to ex- 
plore one of the Catacombs, with nothing but a torch 
and a thread for a guide. As he wandered on through 
gallery and chamber, he became so absorbed in his study 
that, unawares, the thread slipped from his hand. On 
discovering his loss he tried, but in vain, to recover the 
clew. Presently his torch went out, and he was left in 
utter darkness, imprisoned in a living grave, surrounded 
by the relics of mortality. The silence was oppressive. 
* Hymnos et psalmos decantans. — Hieron., Vit. Fault. 



Their Structure. 47 

He shouted, but the hollow echoes mocked his voice. 
Weary with fruitless efforts to escape his dread impris- 
onment he threw himself in despair upon the earth, 
when, lo, something familiar touched his hand. Could 
he believe it ? it was indeed the long lost clew by which 
alone he could obtain deliverance from this awful 
labyrinth. Carefully following the precious thread he 
reached at last the open air, 

And never Tiber, rippling through the meads, 

Made music half so sweet among its reeds ; 

And never had the earth such rich perfume, 

As when from him it chased the odor of the tomb.* 

Still more terrible in its wildness is an incident nar- 
rated by MacFarlane.f In the year 1798, after the re- 
turn to Rome of the Republican army under Berthier, 
a party of French officers, atheistic disciples of Voltaire 
and Rousseau, and hardened by the orgies of the Revo- 
lution, visited the Catacombs. They caroused in the 
sepulchial crypts, and sang their bacchanalian songs 
among the Christian dead. They rifled the graves and 
committed sacrilege at the tombs of the saints. One 
of the number, a reckless young cavalry officer, "who 
feared not God nor devil, for he believed in neither," re- 
solved to explore the remoter galleries. He was speedily 
lost, and was abandoned by his companions. His excited 
imagination heightened the natural horrors of the scene. 
The grim and ghastly skeletons seemed an army of 
accusing spectres. Down the long corridors the wind 
mysteriously whispered, rising in inarticulate moanings 
and woeful sighs, as of souls in pain. The tones of the 
neighbouring convent bell, echoing through the stony 

* From " L' 'Imagination," by Abbe de Lille, MacFarlane's trans- 
lation. 

\ Catacombs of Home. London, 1S52. P. 94, et sea. 



48 The Catacombs of Rome. 

vaults, sounded loud and awful as the knell of doom, 
Groping blindly in the dark, he touched nothing but 
rocky walls or mouldering bones, that sent a thrill of 
horror through his frame. Though but a thin roof sepa- 
rated him from the bright sunshine and free air, he 
seemed condemned to living burial. His philosophical 
skepticism failed him in this hour of peril. He could 
no longer scoff at death as " un sommeil eternel" The 
palimpsest of memory recalled with intensest vividness 
the Christian teachings of his childhood. His soul be- 
came filled and penetrated with a solemn awe. His 
physical powers gave way beneath the intensity of his 
emotion. He was rescued the next day, but was long 
ill. He rose from his bed an altered man. His life was 
thenceforth serious and devout. When killed in battle 
in Calabria seven years after, a copy of the Gospels was 
found next to his heart. 

Even as late as 1837 a party of students with their 
professor, numbering in all some sixteen, or, as some say, 
nearly thirty, entered the Catacombs on a holiday excur- 
sion, to investigate their antiquities, but became entangled 
amid their intricacies. Diligent search was made, but 
no trace of them was ever found. In some silent crypt 
or darksome corridor they were slowly overtaken by the 
same torturing fate as that of Ugolino and his sons in 
the Hunger Tower of Pisa.* The passage by which 
they entered has been walled up, but the mystery of 
their fate will never be dispelled till the secrets of the 
grave shall be revealed. 

* Inferno, Canto xxxiii, vv. 21-75. 



Their Origin and Early History. 49 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS. 

It is highly probable that the first Roman Catacombs 
were excavated by the Jews.* Many Hebrew cap- 
tives graced the triumph of Pompey after his Syrian 
conquests, B. C. 62. The Jewish population increased 
by further voluntary accessions. They soon swarmed 
in that Trans-Tiberine region which formed the ancient 
Ghetto of Rome. They made many proselytes from 
paganism to the worship of the true God, and thus, to 
use the language of Seneca, " The conquered gave laws to 
their conquerors." f 

All the national customs and prejudices of the Jews 
were opposed to the Roman practice of burning the dead, 
which Tacitus asserts they never observed ; % and they 
clung with tenacity to their hereditary mode of sepul- 
ture. Wherever they have dwelt they have left traces 

* A deal of fanciful theory has been indulged in as to the origin 
of the Catacombs. They have been attributed to a pre-historic race 
of Troglodytes, who loathed the light of day, and burrowed like 
moles in the earth. Mac Farlane has an eloquent apostrophe to the 
old Etrurians, by whom he imagined they were excavated twelve 
hundred years before the Christian era. We have seen also how they 
were erroneously attributed to the pagan Romans. 

t Victoribus victi leges dederunt. On the Tiber, the Tigris, and 
the Nile, this saying was strikingly verified. Yet Judaism is an 
essentially conservative, not an aggressive, religion. It was un- 
adapted for such wide-spread conquests as those of Christianity, or 
even of Mohammedism. The ancient mould of thought, having 
served its purpose, was broken. Judaism may be said to have died 
in giving birth to Christianity. 

% Hist., v, 5. 

4 



50 The Catacombs of Rome. 

of subterranean burial. The hills of Judea are honey- 
combed with sepulchral caves and galleries. Similar 
excavations have been found in the Jewish settlements 
of Asia Minor, the ^Egean Isles, Sicily, and Southern 
Italy.* So also in Rome they sought to be separated 
in death, as in life, from the Gentiles among whom they 
dwelt. They had their Catacombs apart, in which not 
a single Christian or pagan inscription has been found. 
Bosio describes one such Catacomb, which he discov- 
ered on Monte Verde, which was much more ancienl 
than the Christian Catacomb of St. Pontianus in the 
same vicinity. It was of very rude construction, and 
contained not a single Christian monument, but numer- 
ous slabs bearing the seven-branched Jewish candle- 
stick, and one inscription on which the word CTNAPftr 
— Synagogue — was legible. f It was situated near thai 
Trans-Tiberine quarter of the city inhabited at the pe- 
riod of the Christian era by the numerous Jewish popula- 
tion of Rome. It cannot now, however, be identified, 
having been obliterated or concealed by the changes 
of the last two centuries. Maitland gives the following 
Jewish inscription from a MS. collection in Rome. The 
figure to the left may be a horn for replenishing the lamp 
with oil. The letters at the right are probably intended 
for the Hebrew word QW, Shalom, or Peace, so com- 
mon in its classical equivalent upon Christian tombs. 
The palm branch is a Pagan as well as Jewish and Chris- 
tian symbol of victory. The central figure is a rude repre- 

* In 1853 a Jewish Catacomb was discovered at Venosa, in South- 
ern Italy, containing one gallery seven feet high and four hundred 
feet long. In 1854 another was discovered at Oria, with many 
Hebrew symbols and inscriptions. There were many Jews in Apulia 
and Calabria. 

+ In eo quippe baud ulla, ut in reliquis, Christianae religiouis 
nditi.-i et iigna apparebanL-— Bosio, Rom. Sott., 142. 



Their Origin and Early History. 5 1 



EN6AAE KEI 

TAI $ayctina 




" Here lies Faustina. In Peace. " 
Fig. 18. — Slab from Jewish Catacomb. 

sentation of the seven-branched candlestick which ap- 
pears also in bass-relief on the Arch of Titus at Rome. 

In the year 1859 another Jewish Catacomb was dis- 
covered in the Vigna Randanini, on the Appian Way, 
about two miles from Rome. It has been minutely de- 
scribed by Padre Garrucci.* In this the graves and 
sarcophagi are sunk in the floor as well as in the walls. 
They are closed with terra cotta or marble slabs, and are 
otherwise similar to those of the Chrii tian Catacombs. 
It contains several vaulted chambers, one of which has 
some very remarkable paintings of the seven-branched 
candlestick on the roof and walls. The same figure is 
frequently scratched on the mortar with which the 
graves are closed. The dove and olive branch and the 
palm are also frequently repeated. Although nearly 
two hundred inscriptions have been discovered, not one 
of either pagan or Christian character has been met 
with. 

The names are sometimes strikingly Jewish in form, 
and where the epitaphs refer to the station of the de- 

* Cimitero degli Antichi Ebrei Scoperto recentemente in Vigno 
Randanini, illustrate da Raffaele Garrucci. 8vo. Roma, 1862. 



5 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ceased it is always to officers of the synagogue, as 
APKONTEC, rulers, TPAMMATEIC, scribes. The fol- 
ing examples are from the Kircherian Museum : 

QAE KEITE CAAfl[MH] GYrATHP TAAIA nATPOC CYNA- 
TflrHC AIBPEGN EB1QCEN MA EN EIPHNH KOIMHC1C AYTHC. 
Here lies Salome, daughter of Gadia, Father of the Synagogue 
of the Hebrews. She lived forty-one years. Her sleep is in 
peace. ENGAAE KEITE KYNTIANOC TEPOYCIAPKHC CYNA- 
rarHC THC AYrYCTHClQN. Here lies Quintianus, Gerousiarch 
(that is, Chief Elder) of the Synagogue of the Augustenses. 
EN9AAE KEITAI NE1KOAHMOC O APXflN CIBOYPHC1QN KAI 
nACl <i>EIAHTOC A1TON A HMEP MB GAP! ABAAB1 NEQTEPE 
OYAEIC A9ANAT0C. Here lies Nicodemus, ruler of the Sever- 
enses, and beloved of all; (aged) thirty years, forty-two days. Be 
of good cheer, O inoffensive young man ! no one is exempt from 
death. 

This inscription will recall another " ruler of the 
Synagogue " of the same name. Many of the sleep- 
ers in this Jewish Cemetery were evidently, from their 
names,* Greek or Latin proselytes. Sometimes, indeed, 
this is expressly asserted, as in the following : 

Mannacivs sorori Crysidi dvlcissime proselyte. — Manna- 
cius to his sweetest sister Chrysis, a proselyte. 

It may be assumed that this Catacomb was exclu- 
sively Jewish, and we know, from the testimony of 
Juvenal f and others, that numbers of the Jews inhabited 
the adjacent part of Rome, about the Porta Capena 
and the valley of Egeria. It is not, however, certain 
whether it is the original type, or a later imitation, of the 
Christian cemetery. But the Jewish population must 
have had extra-mural places of sepulture before the 
Christian era ; and it is probable that the c;arly Jewish 

* See Fig. 18. 

t Nunc sacri fontis nimus, et delubra locantur 
Judxh.-r-Sai. iii, 13. 



Their Origin and Early History. 53 

converts to Christianity may have merely continued a 
mode of burial already in vogue, substituting the em- 
blems of their newly adopted faith for those which 
they had forsaken; or, rather — for we find that 
they frequently retained certain Jewish symbols, as the 
dove, olive branch, and palm — supplementing them 
with the emblems of Christianity. De Rossi has ex- 
pressed the opinion that the earliest mode of Christian 
burial was in sarcophagi, as in the Jewish cemetery 
above described. 

The date of the planting of Christianity in Rome is 
uncertain. Probably some of the " strangers of Rome ' 
who witnessed the miracle of the Pentecost, or, perhaps, 
the Gentile converts of the " Italian band " of Cornelius, 
brought the new evangel to their native city.* But cer- 
tain it is that as early as A. D. 58 the faith of the 

* It is incredible that the Apostle Peter had any share in planting 
the Roman Church. If he had, Paul would not, as he does, utterly 
ignore his labours. " Only Luke is with me," writes St. Paul, just 
before his death; yet he and Peter are feigned to have suffered on 
the same day. The story of St. Peter's twenty-five years' episcopate 
at Rome is too absurd to require disproof. The very minuteness of 
detail in the legends of St. Peter is their own refutation. In vain 
are we shown the chair in which tradition asserts that he sat, the 
font at which he baptized, the cell in which he was confined, the 
fountain which sprang up in its floor, the pillar to which he was 
bound, the chains which he wore, the impression made by his 
head in the wall and by his knees in the stony pavement, the scene of 
his crucifixion, the very hole in which the foot of the cross was placed, 
and the tomb in which his body is said to lie ; they all fail to carry 
conviction to any mind in which superstition has not destroyed the 
critical faculty. The mighty fane which rises sublimely in the heart 
of Rome in honour of the Galilean fisherman, like the religious sys- 
tem of which it is the visible exponent, is founded on a shadowy tra- 
dition, opposed alike to the testimony of Scripture, the evidence of 
history, and the deductions of reason. The question whether Peter 
ever was in Rome has recently been publicly discussed under the very 
shadow of the Vatican. Verily, Tempora mutantur. 



54 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Roman Church was " spoken of throughout the whole 
world." "Christianity," says Tertullian, "grew up un- 
der the shadow of the Jewish religion, to which it was 
regarded as akin, and about the lawfulness of whit h 
there was no question; "* and it doubtless adopted the 
burial usages of Judaism. 

But even without the example of the Jews the Ro- 
man Christians would naturally revolt from the pagan 
custom of burning the dead, with its accompanying 
idolatrous usages,f and would prefer burial, after the 
manner of their Lord. They showed a tender care 
for the remains of the dead, under a vivid impression of 
the communion of saints and the resurrection of the 
body. They seemed to regard the sepulchre as "God's 
cabinet or shrine, where he pleases to lay up the pre- 
cious relics of his dear saints until the jubilee of glory." J 
Even the Jews designated the grave as Beth-ha-haim, 
the "house of the living," rather than the house of the 
dead. It is probable, therefore, that the origin of the 
Christian Catacombs dates from the death of the first 
Roman believer in Christ. 

Many of the Catacombs were probably begun as 

* Nos quoque ut Judaicae religionis propinquos, sub umbraculum 
insignissimae religionis certe licitse. — Ad Nat., i, n. 

+ Execrantur rogos, et damnant ignium sepulturas. — Minuc. Felix., 
Octav., ii, 451. Tertullian declared it to be a symbol of the fires of 
hell. Possibly, also, the expense and publicity inseparable from the 
practice of cremation made it a matter of necessity for the early Chris- 
tians to adopt the less costly and more private mode of subterranean in- 
terment. Merivale, indeed, asserts that the early Roman Christians 
burned their dead, (vi, 444,) and adduces in support of this strange 
theory only the pagan dedication D. M., found on some Christian 
tombs. As will be shown, (Book III, i,) these letters were part of a 
common epigraphic formula, and give no warrant for this startling 
statement. 

% Bishop Hall. 



Their Origin and Early History. 5 5 

private sepulchres for single families; indeed, some such 
tombs have been discovered in the vicinity of Rome, 
which never extended beyond a single chamber. They 
were excavated in the gardens or vineyards of the 
wealthy converts to Christianity, in imitation of that 
rock-hewn sepulchre consecrated by the body of Christ. 
The following inscription, which may still be seen 
in the most ancient part of the Catacombs of Sts. 
Nereus and Achilles, seem to refer to such a family tomb. 
Another inscription, found in 
the Catacomb of St. Nicome- 
des, restricts the use of the 
sepulchre to the original owner, 
and those of his dependents who 
belong to his religion — at 
[ad] religionem pertinentes 

MEAM. 

The names of many of the 
M. Antonius Res[ti]tutus burial crypts commemorate 
made [this] hypogeum for these original owners. Among 
himself and his [relatives] ot h_ e rs those of Lucina, Pris- 
who believe in the Lord.* ... , „ ..,, .j 

cilia, and Domitilla are consid- 
ered to belong to the First Century, and the two former 
to the times of the Apostles. Some of these may have 
been originally designed, or afterwards opened, for the 
reception of the poor belonging to the Church ; and 
thus the Catacombs would be indefinitely extended till 
they attained their present dimensions. Tertullian ex- 

* It would appear from this inscription that some of the family of 
Restitutus were still pagans, and were buried apart from the rest 
The early Christians regarded it as unlawful to commingle the heathen 
and believers in common burial. St. Cyprian makes it a capital 
charge against the heretical Bishop of Asturia, thai he "buried his 
children in profane sepulchres and in the midst of stranf ers." See 
also Ruth i, 17. Compare Cic, de Leg., ii, 22, and de Off., lib. ii. 



M 


ANTONI 


VS 


• RESTVTV 


s • 


FECIT • VPO 


GEV 


• SIBI • ET 


SVIS 


• FIDENTI 


. BVS- 


IN -DOMINO. 



56 The Catacombs of Rome. 

pressly declares that the provision made for the poor 
included that for their burial — egenis humandis* 

There is reason to believe that, even from the very 
first, the Christian Church at Rome contained not a few 
who were of noble blood and of high rank. In one ~A 
the apostolic epistles Paul conveys the salutation >i 
Pudens, a Roman Senator, of Linus, reputed the first 
Roman bishop, and of Claudia, daughter of a British 
king ; f and we know that even in the Golden House of 
Nero, the scene of that colossal orgy whose record pol- 
lutes the pages of Suetonius and Tacitus, were disciples 
of the crucified Nazarene. In remarkable confirmation 
of this fact is the discovery in the recent explorations 
of the ruins of the Imperial Palace of several Christian 
memorials, including one of those lamps adorned with 
evangelical symbols, so common in the Catacombs. 
Much of the evidence on this subject has been lost by 
the zealous destruction of ecclesiastical records during 
the terrible Diocletian persecution ; but from inscrip- 
tions in the Catacombs, and from the incidental allu- 

* Apol. xxxix. The following inscription, recently discovered in the 
ruins of Csesarea, a Roman town in Africa, attests the provision 
made by wealthy Christians for the burial of their poorer neighbours : 

AREAM AT [AD] SEPVLCHRA CVLTOR VERBI CONTVLIT 

et cellam strvxit svis cvnctis svmptibvs 
ECCLESIjE sanctve hanc reliqvit memoriam, 
SALVETEKRATRES PVRO CORDE ET SIMPLICI 
EVELPIVS VOS SATOS SANCTO SPIRITV. 
ECCLESIA FRATRVM HVNC RESTITVIT TITVLVM. , . . 

A worshipper of the Word has given this area for sepulchres, a id 
has built a vault at his own cost ; he left this memorial to the Holy 
Church. Hail, brethren ! with a pure and simple heart, Euelpius 
[salutes] you, born of the Holy Spirit. 

The congregation of the brethren replaced this inscription. . . . 

\ 2 Tim. iv, 21. Suet., Vit., Ner., c. 28, 29; Tac, Ann., xv, 37. 
See also Dio., lxiii, 13. 



Their Origin and Early History. 5 7 

sions of early writers, we learn that persons of the high- 
est position, and even members of the Imperial family, 
were associated with the Christians in life and in death. 
Some of the noblest names of Rome occur in funeral 
epitaphs in some of the most ancient galleries of the 
Catacombs. There is evidence that even during the 
first century some who stood near the throne became 
converts to Christianity, and even died as martyrs for 
the faith * 

But doubtless the preservation and advancement of 
true religion was better secured amid the dark recesses 
of the Catacombs, during the fiery persecutions that 
befel the Church, than it would have been in the sun- 
shine of imperial favour, in an age and court unparalleled 
for their corruptions. The sad decline of Christianity 
after the accession of Constantine makes it a matter of 
congratulation that in the earlier ages it was kept pure 
by the wholesome breezes of adversity. 

The new religion, notwithstanding all the efforts that 
were made for its suppression, rapidly spread, even in 
the high places of the earth. " We are but of yester- 
day," writes Tertullian at the close of the second cen- 
tury, " yet we fill every city, town, and island of the 
empire. We abound in the very camps and castles, 
in the council chamber and the palace, in the senate 

* E. g. Flavia Domitilla, the niece of Domitian, and her husband, 
Clemens. Their children had been adopted by the Emperor, and 
designated as his successors. So near came Christianity to grasping 
the sceptre of the Caesars in the first century. Dio Cass., Hist., lxvii, 
13. Suet, in Domit., xv. The niece of Domitilla, also of the same 
name, suffered exile for the faith, A. D. 97. She gave the land for 
(he Catacomb which still bears her name. 

Marcia, Mammasa, the mother of Alex. Severus, the Emperor Philip, 
and Prisca and Valeria, the wife and daughter of the arch-persecutor 
Diocletian, either embraced or greaHy favoured Christianity. 



58 The Catacombs of Rome. 

and the forum; only your temples and theatres are 
left."* 

It is evident from an examination of the earliest Cat- 
acombs that they were not the offspring of fear on the 
part of the Christians. There was no attempt at se- 
crecy in their construction. They were, like the pagan 
tombs, situated on the high roads entering the city. 
Their entrances were frequently protected and adorned 
by elegant structures of masonry, such as that which is 
still visible at the Catacomb of St. Domitilla on the Via 
Ardeatina ; \ and their internal decorations and frescoes, 
which in the most ancient examples are of classic taste 
and beauty, were manifestly not executed by stealth and 
in haste, but in security and at leisure. 

There was, in classic times, a sacred character at- 
tached to all places set apart for the purposes of sepul- 
ture. They enjoyed the especial protection of the law, 
and were invested with a sort of religious sanctity. J 
This protection was asserted in many successive edicts, 
and the heaviest penalties were inflicted on the viola- 
tors of tombs, as guilty of sacrilege. § Reverence for the 
sepulchres of the dead was regarded by the ancient 
mind as a religious virtue ; and the neglect of the ances- 
tral tomb even involved disability for municipal office. || 

* Apo!., c. 37. 

X Religiosum locum unusquisque sua voluntate facit, dum mortuum 
infert in locum suum. Marcian. Digest., i, 8, 6, § 4. 

§ Cod. Justin., lib. ix, tit. 19, de Sepiclchro Violato, leg. I, 5 ; Cod. 
TAeod., lib. ix, tit. 17. Proximum sacrilegio majores semper 
habuerunt. So the poet exclaims : 

Res ea sacra, miser ; noli mea tangere fata: 
Sacrilegae bustis abstinuere manus. — 
•'Touch not my monument, thou wretch ; it is a sacred thing; even 
sacrilegious hands refrain from the viobtion of graves." 
|| Xen., Mem., ii, 2, § 13. 



Their Origin and Early History. 59 

Being situated along the public highway, these pagan 
tombs were liable to various pollutions, to which nu- 
merous inscriptions refer. Hence the frequent cave 
viator — " Traveller, beware ! " — so common in classic 
epitaphs. The scriptor parce hoc opvs — "Writer, 
spare this work " — sometimes met with, is, as Kenrick well 
remarks,* not the address of an author to a critic, but of 
a relative of the deceased, entreating the wall-scribbler 
not to disfigure a tomb. Electioneering notices were 
sometimes written upon these wayside monuments — 
a practice which is deprecated in the following : 

CANDIDATVS FIAT HONORATVS ET TV FELIX SCRIPTOR 

si hic non scripseris — "May your candidate be hon- 
oured and yourself happy, O writer, if you write not 
on this tomb ! " inscriptor, rogo te vt transeas 
monvmentvm — " Inscriber, I pray you pass by this 
monument." 

As these sepulchral areas, often of considerable ex- 
tent, were taken from the fields in the vicinity of a 
great city, where the land was very valuable for the 
purpose of tillage, they were in continual danger of in- 
vasion from the cupidity of the heirs or of adjacent 
land-owners, but for this legal protection. On many of 
the cippi, or funereal monuments, which line the public 
roads in the vicinity of Rome, the extent of these areas 
is set forth. Some of them are quite small, as is indi- 
cated in the following inscription : terrenvm sacra- 

TVM LONGVM P[EDES] • X- LAT • p[eDES] • X • FODERE NOLI • 

ne sacrilegivm committas f — "A consecrated plot of 
earth, ten feet long and ten feet broad. Do not dig 
here, lest you commit sacrilege." 

More generally the size of the area is expressea, as 

* Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions, p. 9, London, 1858. 



60 The Catacombs of Rome. 

in the following: in fronte p[edes] • i.t in agro 
p[edes] ■ x ; that is, " Frontage on the road, nine feet ; 
depth in the field, ten feet." This area, small as it is. 
was designed for several families. The limited space 
occupied by the cinerary urns rendered this quite pos- 
sible. Frequently, however, the size was much larger. 
An area one hundred and twenty-five feet square would 
be of very moderate extent. Horace mentions one one 
thousand feet by three hundred,* and sometimes they 
greatly exceed this, as one on the Via Labicana, five hun- 
dred by eighteen hundred feet, or over twenty English 
acres. There were also frequently exhedrce, or seats by 
the wayside, for passers-by, who were sometimes ex- 
horted to pause and read the inscription, or to pour a 
libation for the dead, as in the following : siste via- 
tor TV QVI VIA FLAMINIA TRANSIS, RESTA AC RELEGE 

"Stop, traveller, who passest by on the Flaminian 
Way; pause and read, and read again!" misce 
bibe da mihi — " Mix, drink, and give to me." vi- 
atores salvete et valete — "Travellers, hail and 
farewell." 

These burial plots were incapable of alienation 
or transfer from the families for whom they were orig- 
inally set apart; who are sometimes enumerated in 
the inscription, or more generally expressed by the 
formulae, sibi svisqve fecit, sibi et posteris.svjs, or 
with the addition, libertis libertabvsqve posteris- 
qve, that is, " He made this for himself and his family," 
or " for himself and his descendants ; " also " for his f reed- 
men and freedwomen and their descendants." Sometimes 
this limitation is plainly asserted to be, vt ne vnqvam 

* Mille pedes in fronte, trecentos cippus in agrum 
Hie dabat ; heredes inonumentum ne sequeretur. 

Hon, / Sat., viii, 12. 



Their Origin and Early History. 6 1 

DE NOMINE FAMILIAE NOSTRAE HOC MONVMENTVM EXEAT 

— " That this monument may not go out of the name 
of our family." The cupidity of the inheritor of the es- 
tate is especially guarded against by the ever-recurring 
formula, H • M • H • N • s •, that is, Hoc monumentum hczre- 
dem non sequitur — "This monument descends not to the 
heir." Sometimes within a stately mausoleum reposed 
in solitary magnificence the dust of a single individ- 
ual, who in sullen exclusiveness declares in his 
epitaph that he has no associate even in the grave, 
or that he made his tomb for himself alone — in 

HOC MONVMENTO SOCIVM HABEO NVLLVM, Or, HOC SOLO 
SIBI FECIT. 

The violation of the monument is earnestly depre- 
cated in numerous inscriptions in some such terms as 
these : rogo per deos svperos inferosqve ne velitis 
ossa mea violare — "I beseech you, by the supernal 
and infernal gods, that you do not violate my bones." 
Sometimes this petition is accompanied by an impreca- 
tion of divine vengeance if it should be neglected, as, 
qvi violaverit deos sentiat iratos — "May he feel 
the wrath of the gods* who shall have violated [this 
tomb.] " Another invokes the fearful curse, qvisqvis 

HOC SVS1VLERIT AVT LAESERIT VLTIMVS SVORVM MO- 

RiATVRf — "Whoever shall take away or injure this 
[tomb] let him die the last of his race." 

From a distrust of posterity many erected their mon- 
uments during their life-time, and wrote their own 
epitaphs, leaving only a space for the age. This is some- 
times expressed by the words, sibi vivvs fecit, or, se 
vivo, se vivis, or even by such solecisms as me vivvs, or 
se vivvs. The following records the strange fact of the 
erection of a funereal monument by one living person to 

* Literally, " the angry gods." f Reinesius. 



62 The Catacombs of Rome. 

another : semiramiae liciniae qvam loco filiae 
diligo ob merita eivs vivvs vivae feci — " To Semira- 
mia Licinia, whom I love in place of my daughter : on 
account of her merits, alive, I made this to her alive." 

These classic usages have been thus detailed because 
traces of their influence may be observed in many prac- 
tices adopted by the primitive Christians, and because 
they furnish an explanation of those remarkable immu- 
nities and privileges which the Catacombs so long en- 
joyed. These latter were constructed in separate and 
limited areas, in like manner as the pagan sepulchres. 
De Rossi has given a map of the Catacomb of Callixtus, in 
which these areas are accurately defined. They vary 
in size and shape, that of the crypt of St. Lucina being 
one hundred feet in fronte and one hundred and eighty 
in agro, that of St. Cecilia two hundred and fifty 
feet in fronte and one hundred in agro, and others still 
larger. By the very tenor of the law these areas en- 
joyed the same protection as those of the pagan sepul- 
chres, of which protection it required a special edict 
to deprive them. Even when Christianity fell under 
the ban of persecution that freedom of sepulture was 
not at first interfered with. Having wreaked his cruel 
rage upon the living body, the pagan magistrate at least 
did not deny right of burial to the martyr's mutilated 
remains. A beneficent Roman law declared that the 
bodies even of those who died by the hand of the public 
executioner might be given up to any who asked for 
them.* So that even the sentence of outlawry against 
the Christians did not affect the bodies of the dead. 
Indeed, we know from ecclesiastical history that fre- 
quently the faithful received the remains of the martyrs 

* Corpora animadversorum quibuslibet petentibus ad sepulturam 
danda sunt. Digest., xlviii, 24, 2. 



Their Origin and Early History. 63 

and gave them Christian burial. It was not till the 
third century, when the pagan opposition to Christianity 
became intense and bitter, that the persecutors waged 
war upon the dead. Although both Diocletian and Max- 
imian confirmed the decree just cited, it often happened 
that, in order that the Christians might not have even 
the melancholy consolation of gathering up the martyrs' 
bones, and honouring the remains of their fallen heroes, 
those sacred relics were denied the rites of sepulture 
which were freely accorded to the body of the vilest 
malefactor. 

These areas, Christian as well as pagan, were under 
the guardianship of the Roman Pontifices, who, although 
pagans, were actually confirmed in their authority by the 
Christian Emperor Constans. In consequence of this 
protection the Christians were enabled to conduct their 
worship and celebrate their agapce in the oratories or 
other buildings erected over the Catacombs, the ruins 
of which are still to be seen at the Catacombs of St. 
Domitilla and Sts. Nereus and Achilles, and which to the 
popular apprehension would seem to correspond to the 
pagan structures for the celebration of funeral banquets. 
Even when oppressed and persecuted above ground, 
they found a sanctuary beneath its surface, and were 
permitted by the ignorance or indifference of their foes 
to worship God among the holy dead. So long as their 
sepulchral areas were uninvaded the Christians scrupu- 
lously abstained from extending their excavations be- 
yond their respective limits, digging lower piani instead, 
when insatiate death demanded room for still more graves. 
But when the ruthless persecutor pursued them even be- 
neath the earth, they felt at liberty to transcend those 
limits and burrow in any direction for safety or escape. 

The Christian inscriptions often strongly deprecate 



64 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the violation of the graves to which they are at- 
tached, in like manner as we have seen in pagan epi- 
taphs, and against this crime the Fathers intensely 
inveigh. Sometimes the petition assumes a most sol- 
emn character, as this : [adivro] vos per c[h]ristvm, 

NE MIHI AB ALIQVO VIOLENTIAM \sic\ FIAT ET NE 

sepvlcrvm mevm violetvr — "[I conjure] you by 
Christ that no violence be offered me by any one, and 
that my sepulchre may not be violated." Still more 
awful in its adjuration is the following : conivro vos 

PER TREMENDVM DIEM IVDICII VT HANC SEPVLTVRAM 

nvlli violent* — "I conjure you by the dreadful day 
of judgment that no one violate this sepulchre." 

Sometimes a most terrible imprecation is expressed, 
as in the following : 

MALE • PEREAT • INSEPVLTVS 
IACEAT • NON • RESVRGAT 
CVM • IVDA • PARTEM • HABEAT 
SI • QVIS • SEPVLCHRVM • HVNC • VIOLAVERIT — 
If any one shall violate this sepulchre, 
Let him perish miserably and remain unburied ; 
Let him lie down and not rise again, 
Let him have his portion with Judas, f 

. . . .[emi] gravit ad xpm 

SEPVLCRVM VIOLARE 

. . . .SIT ALIENVS A REGNO DEI. 

Has departed to Christ. [If any one dare] to violate this 

sepulchre, let him. . . .and be far from the kingdom of God.J 

* Both of these are given by Dr. McCaul in his Christian Epi- 
taphs of the First Six Centuries, an admirable little volume, mj 
indebtedness to which will be elsewhere acknowledged. He also 
quotes the following from Henzen's Inscr. Lat. Select. Col., No. 6 571 : 

PETOABOBIS [VOBIS] FRATRES BONI PER VNVM DEVM NE QVIS VI TI- 

tvlo molestet post mortem — " I beseech you, good brothers, by the 
one God, that no one by force injure this inscription after my death." 

\ Aringhi, lib. iv, c. xxvii. 

\ Sometimes an anathema was invoked upon the disturber of the 



Their Origin- and Early History. 65 

It is probable that this dread of the violation of the 
grave arose, in part at least, from the fear that the disper- 
sion of the remains might impede the resurrection of the 
body; and also from that natural aversion to the disturb- 
ance of the slumbering dust, so passionately expressed 
on the tombstone of England's greatest dramatist.* 

We sometimes find also the announcement upon Chris- 
tian as well as upon pagan tombs, that they have been 
prepared while the tenants were yet alive, as in the fol- 
lowing: locvs basilionis se bibo fecit — "The place 
of Basilio., he made it when alive ; " sabini bisomvm se 

BIBVM FECIT SIBI IN CEMETERIVM BALBINAE IN CRYPTA 

nob a [sic] — ■" The bisomus of Sabinus, he made it for 
himself during his life-time, in the cemetery of Balbina, 
in the new crypt." As Sabinus could only occupy one 
half of this, the other half was probably intended for his 
wife. Observe in the following the beautiful euphemism 
for the grave. It is calmly chosen as the last long home, 

grave, as in the following interesting example, found in the island of 
Salamis, and quoted by Dr. McCaul from Kirchoff, Corpus. Inscript. 
Gr&c, No. 9303 : Olicog aiuviog ' kyuduvog avayvuarov /ctw Ev<prjfj.iag 
ev dvoi drjuaig iSla Endarc^ r/ficiv. El 6e rcg tuv IdLuv 7} 'hepog Tig 
ToTifirjar) oufin Karadiudat kvravda napei; tuv dvu TJ/iuv, Tioyov dipr) ra> 
6eu> nai avadefia t)tu fiapavaGdv — " The everlasting dwelling of 
Agatho, a reader, and P'.uphemia, in two graves, one for each of us 
separately. If any one of our relatives, or any one else, shall pre- 
sume to bury a body here beside us two, may he give an account of 
it to God, and may he be anathema maranatha." 

* It is remarkable that Shakespeare's epitaph should present almost 
as uncouth a specimen of epigraphy as any of the barbarous inscrip- 
tions of the Catacombs. See the following copy : 

Good Friend for Iesus SAKE forbeare 
To diGG T-E Dust EncloAsed HERe 
Blest be T-E Man T spares T-es Stones 

And cm st be He 1 moves my Bones. 
V 
5 



66 The Catacombs of Rome. 

as the " house ap- xq > 

pointed for all liv- JC 

ing." (Fig. 19 .*) ^^ ^ |V 

But there was /V\ Rf \J R \J $ 

another and still ' % w 

SLZ?£ UIXLTA/Vl/D/V 

tween the funeral \/ f 1 r" I r» w 1 -r— pv 
usages of the pa- A Lj | L L U A I | U 

c t an Ch ;; o/wmujusinpacf 

y e t mentioned, p^. 19.- Epitaph from Lapidarian 
and one which Gallery* 

greatly contributed to the freedom of action and secur- 
ity of the latter. There is abundant monumental 
and other evidence of the existence in Rome, in the 
time of the later Republic and of the Empire, of certain 
funeral confraternities — collegia, as they were called — 
much like the modern burial clubs. A remarkable 
inscription of the time of Hadrian, A. D. 103, found at 
Lavigna, nineteen miles from Rome, on the Appian 
Way, gives an insight into their constitution and objects. 
With much legal tautology it sets forth the privilege of 
this collegium of the worshippers of Diana and the new 
divinity Antinous appointed by a decree of the Roman 
Senate and people, to assemble, convene, and have an 
association for the burial of the dead.f The members 



* Maitland reads thus : in christo martyrivs vixit annos 

XCI PLVS MINVS ELEXIT DOMVM VIVVS. IN PACE. — "In Christ. 

Martyrius lived ninety-one years, more or less. He chose a home 
during his life-time. In peace." 

t Collegium salutare Diance et Antinoi, constitutum ex Senatus 
Populique Romani decreto, quibus coire, convenire, collegiumqne 
habere liceat. Qui stipcm menstruam conferre volent in funcra. iu 



Their Origin and Early History. 67 

of this confraternity were to pay for that purpose a 
hundred sesterces at entrance, besides an amphora of 
good wine, and five ases a month thereafter,* all of 
which was forfeited by the non-payment of the monthly 
dues. Three hundred sesterces were expended on the 
funeral, fifty of which were to be distributed at the 
cremation of the body. If a member died at a distance 
from Rome three of the confraternity were sent to fetch 
the body. Even if they failed to obtain it the funeral 
rites were duly paid to an effigy of the deceased. There 
was also provision made for the members dining together 
on anniversary and other occasions according to rules 
duly prescribed by the collegium. 

The names of very many of these collegia have been 
preserved, each of which consisted of the members of 
a similar profession or handicraft. Thus we have the 
Collegium Medicorum, the association of the physicians ; 
Aurificum, of the gold-workers ; Tignariorum, of the car- 
penters ; Dendrophororum, of the wood-fellers ; Pellion- 
ariorum, of the furriers ; Nautarum, of the sailors ; Pab- 
ulai-iorum, of the forage merchants ; Aurigariorum, of 
the charioteers ; and Utriculariorum, of the bargemen. f 

They were frequently also connected by the bond ot 
nationality or of common religious observance, as Col- 
legium Germanorum, the association of the Germans ; 
Pastophororum, of the priests of Isis ; Serapidis et Isidis, 
of Serapis and Isis ; sEsculapii et Hygeice, of y£sculapius 
and Hygeia. J Sometimes they were Cultores Veneris, 
Jovis, Herculis, worshippers of Venus, Jupiter, Hercules, 
or, as we have seen, of Diana and Antinous. 
id collegium coeant, neque sub specie ejus collegii nisi semel in mense 
coeant, conferendi causa unde defuncti sepeliantur. 

* The sesterce, or sestertius, was about 2d ■ 5 farthings, the as about 
3d • 4 farthings. The amphora held about six gallons. 

t Muratori, torn, ii, classis vii, Collegia Varia. % [bid. 



68 The Catacombs of Rome. 

These associations were often favoured with especial 
privileges, immunities, and rights, like those of incorpo- 
ration, such as the holding of territorial property. De 
Rossi has shown, by ample citations, that the emperors, 
who were always opposed to associations among the 
citizens, made a special exemption in favour of these 
funeral clubs.* 

By conformity to the constitution of these corpora- 
tions the Christian church had peculiar facilities for the 
burial of its dead, and even for the celebration of relig- 
ious worship. Indeed, it has been suggested, and is highly 
probable, that it was under the cover of these funeral asso- 
ciations that toleration was conceded, first to the sepul- 
chres, then to the churches. Tertullian describes the 
practice of the Christian community in the second cen- 
tury as follows : " Every one offers a small contribution 
on a certain day of the month, or when he chooses, and 
as he is able, for no one is compelled ; it is a voluntary 
offering. This is our common fund for piety ; for it is 
not expended in feasting and drinking and in wanton 
excesses, but in feeding and burying the poor, in support- 
ing orphans, aged persons, and such as are shipwrecked, 
or such as languish in mines, in exile, or in prison." f 
Thus the Ecclesia Fratrum, the " Congregation of the 
Brethren," who restored the funeral monument described 
on page fifty-six,J suggests the pagan college of the Fra- 

* Trajan regarded with suspicion even fire brigades and charitable 
societies, (Pliny. X Epis. 43 et 94,) and forbade the assemblies of the 
Christians, but permitted the monthly contribution of the clubs — Per- 
mittitur tenuioribus stipem menstruam conferee. Digest., xlvii, 22, I. 

f Modicam unusquisque stipem menstrua die, vel quum velit, et si 
modo velit, et si modo possit, apponit : nam nemo compellitur, sed 
sponte confert . . . Nam inde non epulis . . . sed egenis alendis 
liitiuaiidisqite . . . etc. Tent., Apol., c. 39. 

\ Sec fust footnote. 



Their Origin and Early History. 69 

ires Arvaiesj and the Cultor Verbi, or worshipper of the 
Divine Word, in the same inscription, would seem to the 
heathen magistrate analogous to the Cultores Jovis or 
Cultores Diana of the pagan collegia. Indeed, it is diffi- 
cult to decide from the names of some of these associa- 
tions whether they were Christian or pagan. Thus we 
read of the Collegium convictorum qui una epulo vesci solent 
— " The fraternity of table-companions who are accus- 
tomed to feast together." De Rossi suggests that there 
may be here a covert reference to a Christian community, 
and probably to the celebration of the Agape or of the 
Eucharist.* Another is the Collegium quod est in domo 
Sergice Paulina — " The association which is in the house 
of Sergia Paulina." This possibly may have been a 
Christian community, like " the church which was in 
the house " of Priscilla and Aquila.f 

That the primitive Christians availed themselves of 
the privileges granted to the funeral associations, is con- 
firmed by a discovery made by De Rossi in the Ceme- 
tery of St. Domitilla in the year 1865, and already re- 
ferred to. At the entrance, was found a chamber, with 
stone seats like the sc/wla, or place of meeting of the 
pagan tombs where the religious confraternity celebrated 
the funeral banquet of the deceased. Here the 
Christians celebrated instead the Agape, or Feast of 
Charity, and the Natalitia, or anniversary of the martyrs 
who were buried there, just as the pagan associations 
commemorated the anniversaries of their deceased 
patrons. 

The ancient privileges of these collegia were confirmed 
by an edict of Septimius Severus about the year A. D. 
200. It is a curious coincidence that precisely at this 
time Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome, appointed Callixtus 

* Bullettiito, 1864, 62. f Rom. xvi, 5, 3. 



70 The Cataccmbs of Rome. 

to be " guardian of the cemetery," as well as head of 
the clergy.* In order to secure to the funeral associa- 
tion the protection of the law it was necessary that one 
of its members should be appointed agent or " syndic,' 
by whom its business should be transacted, and in whose 
name its property should be held.f Thus Callixtus be- 
came the syndic of the public cemetery of the church. 
which still bears his name. De Rossi conjectures that 
this was the first cemetery set apart for the use of 
the whole Christian community. Hence it was taken 
under the care of the ecclesiastical authorities, and 
became, as we shall see hereafter, the burying-place 
of the Roman bishops, and the especial property of the 
church. \ 

We will now trace briefly the history of those perse- 
cutions which glutted the Catacombs with victims, and 
at times drove the church for sanctuary to their deep- 
est recesses. We have seen that Christianity grew up 
under the protection accorded to Judaism as one of 
the tolerated religions of Rome. Bu-t this toleration 
did not long continue. In Rome as well as elsewhere 
the new creed was doomed to a baptism of blood. The 
causes of this persecution are not far to seek. The Chris- 
tian doctrine spread rapidly, and early excited the jeal- 
ousy of the Roman authorities by its numerous converts 
from the national faith, many of whom were of exalted 
rank. These carefully refrained from the idolatrous 
adulation by which the servile mob were wont to express 

* Philosophoumena, ix, n. 

f Actorem sive syndicum, per quern, quod communiter agi fierique 
oporteat, agatur, fiat. — Digest., iii, 4, I, § i. 

i Everamente che almeno fino dal secolo terzo i fideli abbianopos- 
siduto cemeteri a nome commune, e che il loro possesso sia stato 
riconosciuto dagl' imperatori, e cosa impossibile a negare. — De Rossi, 
Rovt. Sott., torn, i, p. 103. 



Their Origin and Early Structure. 7 1 

their loyalty to the imperial monster who aspired to be a 
god. Hence they were accused of disaffection, of trea- 
son.* They were the enemies of Caasar, and of the 
Roman people. \ They were supposed to exert a malign 
influence on the course of nature. If it did not rain 
the Christians were to blame. J " If the Tiber over- 
flows its banks," says Tertullian, " or the Nile does not ; 
if there be drought or earthquakes, famine or pestilence, 
the cry is raised, ' The Christians to the lions ! ' " § If the 
pecking of the sacred chickens or the entrails of the sac- 
rificial victims gave unfavourable omens, it was attributed 
to the counter spell of " the atheists." At Rome, as well 
as at Ephesus and Philippi, the selfish fears of the shrine 
and image makers, whose " craft was in danger," and the 
hostility of the priests and dependents on the idol- 
worship, inspired or intensified the opposition to Chris- 
tianity, as did also the jealousy of the Jews, who 
regarded with especial hostility the believers in the 
lowly Nazarene, whom their fathers with wicked hands 
had crucified and slain. | 

The terrible conflagration which destroyed the greater 
part of the city during the reign of Nero was made the 
excuse for the first outburst of persecution against the 
Christian community. By public rumour this deed was 

* The dreaded crimen majestatis. 

\ Hostes Csesarum, hostes populi Romani. 

% Non pluit Dens, due ad Christianos. — Aug., Civ. Dei, ii, 3. 

§ Si Tiberis ascendit in moenia, si Nilus non ascendit in arva, si 
ccelum stetit, si terra movit, si fames, si lues, statim, " Christianos ad 
leones." — Aj>oi.,x.. "But I pray you," he adds, "were misfortunes 
unknown before Tiberius ? The true God was not worshipped when 
Hannibal conquered at Cannae, or the Gauls filled the city." 

|| Eusebius describes their activity in bringing wood and straw 
from the shops and baths for the burning of Polycarp. Eccl. 
Hist., iv. 15. 



yi The Catacombs of Rome. 

attributed to Nero himself. " To put an end to this re- 
port," says Tacitus, " he laid the guilt, and inflicted the 
most cruel punishment, upon these men, who, already 
branded with infamy, were called by the vulgar, Chris 
tians. . . . Their sufferings at their executions," he 
adds, " were aggravated by insult and mockery ; for 
some were sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and wor- 
ried to death by dogs ; some were crucified, and some, 
wrapped in garments of pitch, were burned as torches to 
illumine the night."* 

During this persecution St. Paul fell a victim, A. D. 
64. He was beheaded " without the gate," on the Ostian 
Way, and weeping friends took up his bleeding corpse 
and laid it, according to tradition, in one of the most 
ancient crypts of an adjoining Catacomb, where Euse- 
bius asserts that his tomb could be seen in his day.f 

From this time Christianity was exposed to outbursts 
of heathen rage, and express decrees were published 
against it. % No longer sharing the protection of Juda- 
ism, it fell under the ban of the empire. At times the 
rage of persecution slumbered, and again it burst forth 
with inextinguishable fury. But, like the typical bush 
that " flourished unconsumed in fire," the Christian faith 
but grew and spread the more. Yet the sword ever im- 

* Ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdedit reos et quaesitissimis 
pcenis affecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Chiistianos appellabat. 

. Et pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis contectilaniatu 
canum interierint, aut crucibus affixi, aut flammandi atque, ubi de- 
fecisset dies, in usum nocturni luminis urerentur. — Ann., xv, 44. 

■f- A telegrapbic despatch from Rome of date January 16, 1873, 
announces that the Pope claims to have discovered the bodies of the 
apostles Philip and James. Highly improbable, and of no practical 
importance if true. Not the bones of the sairfts buried centuries 
ago, but the spirit which animated them and the principles for which 
they died, are the true sources of the church's power. 
\ Sulpic. Sever., Hist , ii, 41. 



Their Origin and Early History. 73 

pended over the church. Sometimes its stroke was foi 
a time deferred, when the little flock took courage and 
rejoiced ; but often it fell with crushing weight, smiting 
the shepherds and scattering the sheep. One of these 
periods of rest extended from the time of the Neronian 
persecution till near the end of the century, when Do- 
mitian, "a second Nero,"* stretched forth his hand 
again to vex the saints. During the short reign of the 
"justice-loving Nerva " the Christians again enjoyed 
repose, so that Lactantius even asserts that they were 
restored to all their former privileges. 

To the first century De Rossi refers the construction 
of at least three or four of the Catacombs. These are, 
(1) the Cemetery of Priscilla, excavated, according to 
an ancient tradition, in the property of the Roman 
Senator Pudens, mentioned by St. Paul, and in which, it 
is said, were interred his daughters Pudentiana and 
Praxides ; (2) the Catacomb of Domitilla, the grand- 
niece of the Emperor Domitian, in which she herself 
was buried, together with her chamberlains Nereus and 
Achilles, who were beheaded for their steadfastness in 
the Christian faith ; (3) the Crypt of Lucina, afterwards 
part of the Catacomb of Callixtus, in which some of the 
most ancient inscriptions have been found. De Rossi 
conjectures that this lady is the same as the Pomponia 
Gnecina before mentioned, the wife of Plautius, the con- 
queror of Britain. (4) De Rossi is also of the opinion 
that he has discovered another, and the oldest of all the 
Catacombs, dating from the very times of the apostles 
themselves, in that known as the Fons Petri, or the 
Cemetery of the Font of Peter, in which tradition as- 
serts that he himself baptized. The classical style of the 
architecture, frescoes, and graceful stucco wreaths and 

* Euseb., Hist. Eccles., iii, 17. A. D. 93-96. 



74 The Catacombs of Rome. 

garlands, and the character of the inscriptions, all point 
to a very ancient period, before art had degenerated, and 
before long-continued persecution had banished Chris- 
tianity into seclusion and poverty. 

The law of Trajan against secret assemblies, synchro- 
nous with the opening of the second century, gave a 
new occasion of persecuting the Church. With such 
severity was this done that, according to Pliny, the 
deserted temples became again frequented, and their 
neglected rites revived.* 

The Emperor Hadrian is described by his contempo- 
raries as diligently practising the Roman rites, and 
despising all foreign religions. f Although he restrained 
the tumultuous attacks of the populace upon the Chris- 
tians, he nevertheless favoured their legal prosecution.J 

The following epitaph given by Maitland com- 
memorates a martyrdom of this reign. The last sen- 
tence seems to imply that it was erected in a time of 
actual persecution ; but no dated example of the mono- 
gram which accompanies it appears before the time of 
Constantine. The inscription was probably written long 

* Prope jam desolata templa coepisse celebrari ; et sacra solennia 
diu intermissa repeti. — Epis. ad Traj. Among the most distin- 
guished sufferers during this persecution was Clement, third bishop 
of Rome, exiled to Pontus, and, it is said, cast into the sea, 
A. D. 103 ; also the venerable Ignatius, bishop of the church 
at Antioch, linked by tradition with the Saviour hirrself, as one 
of the children whom he took in his arms and blessed. Con- 
demned by Trajan to exposure to wild beasts in the amphitheatre at 
Rome, a passion for martyrdom possessed his soul. " Suffer me to be 
the food of the wild beasts," he exclaimed, " by whom I shall attain 
unto God. For I am the wheat of God ; and I shall be ground by 
the teeth of wild beasts that I may become the pure bread of Christ." 
— Epis. ad Romanos, §§ 4, 5. 

t Sacra Romana diligentissime curavit, peregrina contempsit. — Spar- 
lian, in Hadrian. A. D. 1 17-138. 

X Euseb., Hist. Ecc/es., iv, 9. Jus. Mar., Apo/., i, 68, 69. 



Their Origin and Early History. 75 

after the death of Marius, or the monogram may have 
been added by a later hand : 




TEMPORE ADRIANI IMPERATORIS MARIVS 
ADOLESCENS DVX MILITVM QVI SATIS VIXIT \ TJ}> 
DVM VITAM PRO CHO CVM SANGVINE CON 
SVNSIT IN PACE TANDEM QVIEVIT BENE 
MERENTES CVM LACRIMIS ET METV POSVE 
RVNT I. D. VI. 



% 



In Christ. In the time of the Emperor Hadrian, Marius, a young 
military officer, who had lived long enough, when, with his blood, he 
gave up his life for Christ. At length he rested in peace. The 
well-deserving set up this with tears and in fear, on the 6th, Ides 
of December. 

In this reign also suffered Alexander, bishop of Rome, 
whose tomb has been found on the Nomentan Way, 
together with Eventius and Theodulus, a presbyter and 
deacon. 

Under the humane and equitable Antoninus Pius,* 
Christianity seems to have enjoyed a partial toleration, 
although the edict of Trajan was still unrevoked. Yet 
several outbreaks of popular fury against the Chris- 
tians took place, and in the very first year of his reign 
Telesphorus, the bishop of the church at Rome, suf- 
fered martyrdom. f 

One of the strangest phenomena in history is the per- 
secution of the primitive church by the philosophical 
emperor Marcus Aurelius, J whose " Meditations " seem 
almost like the writings of an apostle in their praise of 
virtue, yearning for abstract perfection, and contempt of 
pomp and pleasure. Nevertheless, he was one of the 
most systematic and heartless of all the oppressors of 
the Christian faith — a faith so much loftier than even 

* A. D. 1 38-161. f Irenaeus, iii, 3, §3. J A. D. 161-180. 



y6 The Catacombs of Rome. 

his high philosophy, and yet having so much akin. With 
the cool acerbity of a stoic, he resolved to exterminate 
the obnoxious doctrines. An active inquisition for the 
Christians was set on foot, and the odious system of 
domestic espionage, which even Trajan had forbidden, 
was encouraged. Shameless informers, greedy for gain, 
fed their rapacity on the confiscated spoils of the be- 
lievers, whom they plundered, says Melito, by day and by 
night. Though gentle to other classes of offenders, and 
even to rebels, Aurelius exceeded in barbarity the most 
ruthless of his predecessors in the refinements of tor- 
ture, by rack and scourge, by fire and stake, employed 
to enforce the recantation of the Christians ; and every 
year of his long reign was polluted with innocent 
blood. 

From Gaul to Asia Minor raged the storm of perse- 
cution. The earthquakes, floods, and famine, the wars 
and pestilence, that wasted the empire, were visited upon 
the hapless Christians, who were immolated in heca-- 
tombs as the causes of these dire calamities. From the 
crowded amphitheatre of Smyrna ascended, as in a chariot 
of fire, the soul of the apostolic bishop Polycarp. The 
arrowy Rhone ran* red with martyrs' blood. The names 
of the venerable Pothinus, of the youthful Blandina and 
Ponticus, and of the valiant Symphorianus, will be 
memories of thrilling power and pathos to the end of 
time. At Rome the persecution selected some of its 
noblest victims. Justin, the Christian philosopher, find- 
ing in the Gospels a loftier lore than in the teachings 
of Zeno or Aristotle, of Pythagoras or Plato, became 
the foremost of the goodly phalanx of apologists and 
defenders of the faith, and sealed his testimony with his 
blood. With six of his companions he was brought be- 
fore the prefect for refusing obedience to the imperial 



Their Origin mid Early History. yy 

decree. "We are Christians," they said, "and sacrifice 
not to idols." They were forthwith scourged and be- 
headed, and devout men bore them to their burial, 
doubtless in these very Catacombs, where their undis- 
covered remains may yet lie. In this reign also suffered 
the seven sons of St. Felicitas — the tomb of one of whom 
De Rossi believes he has found — and St. Cecilia and 
her companions, to be hereafter mentioned.* 

* The following inscription, referring to the Antonine period, is 
given by Maitland, (page 40,) as from the Catacomb of Callixtus. 
Although it seems to imply the actual prevalence of persecution, it 
is evidently, even if genuine, of later date than the time alleged. 
The presence of the sacred monogram, as well as the somewhat florid 
and pleonastic style, indicate an origin not anterior to the age of 
Constantine, when it became the fashion with outward pharisaism 
to adorn the sepulchres of the martyrs, although the truths for 
which they died were often treated with neglect : 

ALEXANDER MORTVVS NON EST SED VIVIT SVPER 
ASTRA ET CORPVS IN HOC TVMVLO QVIESCIT. 
VITAM EXPLEVIT SVB ANTONINO IMP QVI VBI MVL 
TVM BENEFITII ANTEVENIRE PRAEVIDERET PRO GRA 

x t\ TIA ODIVM REDDIDIT. GENVA ENIM FLEC 

N( TENS VERO DEO SACRIFICATVRVS AD SVP 

v/| \ PLICIA DVCITVR. O TEMPO R A I^FAVSTA 
QVIBVS INTER SACRA ET VOTA NE IN CAV 
ERNIS QVIDEM SALVARI POSSIMVS. QVID MISERIVS 
VITA SED QVID MISERIVS IN MORTE CVM AB AMICIS ET 
PARENTIBVS SEPELIRI NEQVEANT TANDEM IN COELO 
CORVSCANT. PARVM VIXIT QVI VIXIT IN. X. TEM. 

" In Christ. Alexander is not dead, but lives above the 
stars, and his body rests in this tomb. He ended his s [ ^2'~ Re " 
life under the Emperor Antonine, who, foreseeing that tyr Symbol" 
great benefit would result from his services, returned 
evil for good. For while on his knees and about to sacrifice to the 
true God, he was led away to execution. O sad times ! in which, 
among sacred rites and prayers, even in caverns we are not safe. 
What can be more wretched than such a life? and what than such 
a death ? when they cannot be buried by their friends and relations — 




78 The Catacombs of Rome. 

The legend of the Thundering Legion, supported as 
it is by the medals and the column of Antoninus, com- 
memorates, indeed, the deliverance of the Roman army 
by a timely shower; but the Emperor ascribed that 
deliverance not to the prayers of the Christians, but to 
his own appeal to the heathen gods,* and there is 
no evidence that he ever relaxed the severity of the 
persecution. 

The ferocity of the brutal Commodus f was tempered 
by the influence of his concubine, Marcia, and Chris- 
tianity spread among the highest ranka ; but persecution 

at length they sparkle in heaven. He has scarcely lived who has 
lived in Christian times." 

Maitland renders the concluding letters, IN. X. TEM, by "In Chris- 
tianis temporibus." The furnace seems to indicate that the martyr 
suffered death by fire, or, possibly, by immersion in boiling oil — a 
mode of punishment which St. John is said to have undergone, but 
without receiving any harm. 

Another still more apocryphal inscription is given by Maitland, 
(page 65.) It is probably of the fifth century. The Pudentiana re- 
ferred to is said to have spent her patrimony in relieving the poor 
and burying the martyrs. 

HOC EST COEMETERIVM PRISCILLAE 

IN QVO EXISTVNT CORPORA TRIVM MILLIVM MARTYRVM 

MARTYRIO PER ANTONINUM IMPERATOREM 

AFFECTORVM QVOS S. PVDENTIANA 

FECIT IN HOC SVO VENERABILI TEMPLO SEPELIRI. 

" This is the Cemetery of Priscilla, in which are the bodies of three 
thousand martyrs, who suffered under the Emperor Antonine, whom 
St. Pudentiana caused to be buried in this her own place of worship" 
— Aicher, Hortus Inscriplionum. More authentic relics of this reign 
are the large tiles with which part of the Catacomb of Callixtus is 
paved. They all bear the words, opvs doliare ex praediis Domi- 
ni n et figl novis, which, according to Marini, is the stamp of 
the imperial manufactory of Marcus Aurelius. 

*"Hanc dextram ad te Jupiter, tendo,.quae nullius unquam san- 
guinam fudit," is the form of prayer given by Claudian. Euseb.. v, 5. 

+ A. D. 180-193. 



Their Origi?i and Early History. 79 

did not entirely cease. Apollonius, a senator cf the 
empire, was put to death at Rome, and we read of numer- 
ous martyrdoms elsewhere. A Christian inscription 
commemorates an officer of Commodus, and Procurator 
of the Imperial household, who was " received to God " 

RECEPTVS AD DEVM A. D. 2 1 7.* 

On the death of this emperor the persecution raged 
with such violence that, according to Clemens Alexan- 
drinus, many martyrs were burned, crucified, and be- 
headed every day.f Non licet esse vos — " It is not lawful 
for you to exist " — was the stern edict of extermination 
pronounced against the saints. 

Christianity had little favour to expect from a military 
despot like Septimius Severus, whose dying counsel 
to his successor expressed the principle of his govern- 
ment — " Be generous to the soldiers and trample on all 
besides." 

The revived accusations against the new faith called 
forth the bold defence, or rather defiance, of Tertullian, 
one of the noblest monuments of the primitive ages. In 
this reign the sanctity of the Christian cemeteries was 
first violated, and that not at Rome but in Africa, where 
the persecution was most virulent. " The mob assails us 
with stones and flames with the frenzy of bacchanals," 
says Tertullian ; " They do not even spare the Christian 
dead, but tear them from the rest of the tomb, from 
the asylum of death, cut them in pieces, and rend them 
asunder." \ 

* See chap, ii, book iii. \ Strom., lib. ii, A. D. 193. 

% Apol., 37. Sicut sub Hilariano prseside, cum de areis sepultura- 
rum nostrarum adclamfissent, arese non sint. — Ad Scap., c. ii'. 
A. D. 203. 

No more pathetic episode is contained in the whole range of the 
Martyrology than that of the youthful mother, Perpetua, who suf- 



80 The Catacombs of Rome. 

After the cessation of this persecution the Church 
enjoyed a period of unwonted rest. Although under 
the ignoble Heliogabalus the sensual Asiatic worship 
of Baal was introduced to Rome, and human sacrifice 
was even offered to this Eastern Moloch,* yet the relig- 
ion of peace and purity shared the toleration accorded 
to the most obscene and cruel rites. The just and ami- 
able Alexander Severus inaugurated a new era for 
Christianity,! to which he was favourably disposed prob- 
ably through the influence of his mother, Mammasa, 
who had enjoyed at Antioch the instruction of Origen.J 
He used frequently to quote with approval the Golden 
Rule of Our Lord, and caused it to be inscribed on his 
palace walls, and also ceded to the Christians a piece 
of public ground for the erection of a church. § But 
Alexander was only a religious eclectic, honouring what 
he thought best in the current systems of belief. Of 
this reign is the epitaph of Urban, bishop of Rome, 

fered at Carthage under Severus. Few can read unmoved the acts 
of her martyrdom, which bear the stamp of authenticity in their per- 
fectly natural and unexaggerated tone, and the absence of miracle. 
Young — she was only twenty-two — beautiful, of noble family, and 
dearly loved, her heathen father entreated her to pity his gray hairs, 
her mother's tears, her helpless babe. But her faith proved triumphant 
over even the yearnings of natural affection ; and, wan and faint from 
recent childbirth pangs, she was led, with Felicitas, her companion, 
into the crowded amphitheatre, and exposed to the cruel horns of in- 
furiate beasts. Amid the agonies of death, more conscious of her 
wounded modesty than of her pain, with a gesture of dignity she drew 
her disheveled robe about her person. She seemed rapt in ecstasy till 
by a merciful stroke of the gladiator she was released from her suffer- 
ing, and exchanged the dust and blood of the arena, and the shouts 
of the ribald mob, for the songs of the redeemed, and the beatific 
vision of the Lord she loved. 

* Csedit et humanas hostias. — Lamprid., Heliogabalus. \ A. D. 222. 

% Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vi, 21. 

§ The site, according to tradition, of St. Maria in Trastevere. 



Their Origin and Early History. 81 

which has been found in the so-called "Papal Crypt,' 
bearing his name and the initial letter of his title — 
OTRBANOC E. . . . 

The accession of the Thracian savage, Maximin, A. D. 
235, was the signal for a fresh outburst of persecution. 
To have been favoured by Severus was sufficient to incur 
the hate of his murderer. His rage was especially di- 
rected against the chief pastors of the flock of Christ. 
Pontianus, the Roman bishop, was exiled to Sardinia, 
and there slain. Antherus, his successor in this danger- 
ous dignity, for his zeal in preserving the records of the 
martyrs himself suffered martyrdom a few weeks after 
his accession, and was laid in that narrow chamber des- 
tined to receive so many of Rome's early bishops, where 
a slab bearing his name and title— ANTEPftC • EIII— 
has been found. In this reign also suffered the cele- 
brated Hippolytus, bishop of Pontus, and author of the 
" Philosophoumena." 

Under Gordian and Philip a respite was again granted 
to the persecuted church. The latter, indeed, is claimed 
by Eusebius as a Christian ; but his character and con- 
duct are inconsistent with such a supposition. 

A violent reaction took place on the accession of 
Decius, whose name became an object of execration to 
mankind.* He resolved to entirely crush and extirpate 
Christianity, whose bishops and churches began to rival 
the pontiffs and temples of the gods of Rome. At his 
instigation a persecution of unprecedented virulence 
raged like an epidemic throughout the empire. The 
imperial edicts enforced conformity to the pagan ritual 
under penalty of the most horrible tortures. This un- 

* A. D. 250-253. Execrabile animal Decius, qui vexaret ecclesiam. 
— Lactan., de Mort. Persec, ,c. 3, 4. He would rather tolerate, lie 
said, a rival for his throne, than a bishop in Rome. Cypr., Ep. 53. 
6 



82 The Catacombs of Rome. 

wonted severity produced the first great apostasy of the 
primitive church ; and many of the less stable converts 
procured exemption from martyrdom by sacrificing to 
the gods, burning incense on their altars, or purchasing 
certificates of indulgence from the heathen magistrate.* 
" Pale and trembling, and more like sacrificial victims 
than those about to sacrifice," says an eye-witness, " some 
approached the heathen shrines; but others, firm and 
blessed pillars of the Lord, witnessed a good confession 
unto death."f The bishops of the church, who, as the 
leaders of Christ's sacramental host, bore gallantly the 
battle's brunt, were naturally the earliest victims of the 
tyrant's rage. Accordingly, at the very outbreak of the 
Decian slaughter, the venerable Fabian, head of the 
Roman church, perished by decapitation ; and the 
Catacombs were glutted with a host of unknown mar- 
tyrs". In the very chamber in the Cemetery of Callixtus 
to which his mutilated corpse was borne, may still be 
seen the Bishop's epitaph — 4>ABTANOC " EII1 — with the 
monogram of his martyrdom, the conjoined letters MTP, 
added probably by a later hand. The church seemed 

* Called respectively Sacrificati, Thurificati, and Libellatici, of 
whom the first were esteemed the most guilty. The indignant rhetoric 
of Cyprian expresses his holy horror at this vile apostasy : "They 
made haste to give their souls the mortal wound. . . . That altar 
where he was about to die — was it not his funeral pile ? Should he 
not have fled, as from his coffin or his grave, from that devil's altar, 
when he saw it smoke and fume with stinking smell ? . . . Thou 
thyself wast the sacrificial victim. Thou didst sacrifice thy salvation, 
and burn thy faith and hope in these abominable fires " — Nonne ara 
ilia, quo moriturus accessit, rogus illi fuit ? Nonne diaboli altare quod 
fcetore tretro fumare et redolere conspexerat, velut funus et bustum 
vitsesusehorrere ac fugere debebat ? . . . Ipse ad aram hostia, victima 
ipse venisti. Immolasti illic salutem tuam, spem tuam, fidem tuam, 
funestis illis ignibus concremasti. — De Lapsis., p. 124. 
. \ Dionysius of Alexandria, in Ettseb., vi, 41. 



Their Origin and Early History. 83 

paralyzed with fear, and for sixteen months no suc- 
cessor was elected. But, undismayed by the tragic fate 
of Fabian, Cornelius, allied with some of the noblest 
families of Rome, became the leader of the forlorn hope 
of Christianity against all the power of the empire. 
After a year's episcopate he was first banished and then 
beheaded under Gallus, a worthy successor in persecu- 
tion of Decius. Through the archaeological researches 
of De Rossi have been recovered, first his epitaph — 
CORNELIVS • MARTY.R • EP — and then his tomb, 
with a Damasine inscription, in one of the most interest- 
ing crypts of the Catacombs. Lucius, his successor, in 
six months shared his fate, and was buried in the cham- 
ber consecrated by the dust of so many martyr-bishops, 
where his brief epitaph — AOVKIC — is still legible. 

Valerian,* who revived in his own person the ancient 
office of Censor, was at first so favourable toward the 
Christians that his house, says Dionysius of Alexandria, 
was filled with pious persons, and was, indeed, a congre- 
gation f of the Lord. This favour was doubtless the 
result of the Censor's approval of Christian influence 
on public morals.J In the latter part of his reign, how- 
ever, the Emperor passed under the dominion of the 
most abject superstition. Through the influence of 
Macrianus, a pagan bigot learned in the dark lore of 
Egypt, he became addicted to magic arts, and is said to 
have sought the auguries of the empire in the entrails 
of human victims. § The most relentless decrees were 
launched against the Christian church. The bishops, 
priests, and deacons were forthwith to be put to the 
sword ; all others were to share the same fate, or to be 

* A. D 254-259. t 'E/c/c?i.7/ffta, Euseb., vii, to. 

\ Milman, Hist, of Christianity, Am. ed., Book II., chap vii. 
. § Euseb., Hist. Eccles , vii, 10. 



84 The Catacombs of Rome. 

punished by exile and fetters.* The holding of assem- 
blies, or even entering the Christian cemeteries, was 
strictly prohibited A. D. 257.f By this unwonted inva- 
sion of the immemorial sanctity of the sepulchre the 
Christians were forbidden even these last refuges from 
persecution. 

Among the most illustrious victims of Valerian whose 
bodies lie in the lowly Catacombs, but whose names live 
for evermore, were Stephen I. and Sixtus II., bishops 
of the persecuted church, and a number of distinguished 
ecclesiastics, as well as many laymen of noble rank. \ 

Stephen, as the head of the Christian community, was 
especially obnoxious to heathen rage. According to the 
Acts of his martyrdom he sought concealment in these 
sepulchral crypts, § where he was secretly visited by the 
faithful, and where he administered the sacraments. 
He was traced by the Roman soldiers to his subter- 
ranean chapel, but, awed by the mysterious rites, they 
allowed him to conclude the service in which he was 
engaged. He was then beheaded, with several of his 
adherents, || and buried in the Catacomb. 

* Ut episcopi et presbyteri et diacones incontinenter animadvertan- 
tur, . . . capite quoque raulctentur. — Cypr., ep. 72, ad Successum. 

f Oida/zwc 'et-iorai v/xlv ?/ ovvodovc nuielOai 7) eic tu naXovfiEva 
noiveTfjpia elauuai — Dionys., in Euscb., vii, II. Jassum est, ut nulla 
conciliabula faciant, neque coemeteria ingrediantur. — Pontius, Pasiio 
Cypriani. 

% In Africa, Cyprian, the intrepid bishop of Carthage, after a 
stormy episcopate, obtained the crown of martyrdom. On receiving 
the sentence condemning him to death, he exclaimed, " God be 
thanked ! " and went as joyous to his fate as to a marriage feast. 
— Pontius, Passio Cypr. 

§ " Vitnm solitariam agebat in cryptis." Of St. Urban it i? similar- 
ly said, " Solebat in sacrorum martyrum monumenta." — Acts of Cecilia. 

\ Baronius : Ann., torn, in, p. 76. Among his companions in 
death was Hippolytus, a Roman convert, of whom a beautiful legend 



Their Origin and Early History. 85 

Sixtus, the successor of Stephen, within a year re- 
ceived the martyr's crown. Like another Daniel setting 
at defiance the emperor's decree, he was leading the 
devotions of the persecuted flock in the Catacomb of 
Praetextatus, probably because it was less known than the 
public cemetery of Callixtus, when he was apprehended 
'by the fierce soldiery, who had tracked his footsteps 
thither. He was hurried away to summary judgment, 
brought back to the place of his offence, and there be- 
headed, sprinkling with his blood the walls of the chamber. 
With him were also executed four of his deacons,* the 
monuments of two of whom, Agapetus and Felicissimus, 
De Rossi discovered in the very Catacomb in which 
they suffered. Sixtus himself was buried in the " Bishops' 
Tomb " in the Callixtan Cemetery, where the following 
inscription, fragments of which have been found in the 
d'ebris, was afterward set up by Damasus : 

TEMPORE QVO GLADIVS SECVIT PXA VISCERA MATRIS 
HIC POSITVS RECTOR COELESTIA IVSSA DOCEBAM 
ADVENIVNT SVBITO RAP1VNT QVI FORTE SEDENTEM 
MILITIBVS MISSIS POPVLI TVNC COLL A DEDERE 
MOX SIBI COGNOVIT SENIOR QVIS TOLLERE VELLET 
PALMAM SEQVE SVVMQVE CAPVT PRIOR OBTVLIT IPSE 
IMPATIENS FERITAS POSSET NE LAEDERE QVEMQVAM 
OSTENDIT CHRISTVS REDDIT QVI PRAEMIA VITAE 
PASTORIS MERITVM NVMERVM GREGIS IPSE TVETVR 

is recorded. His pagan relatives, entrusted with the secret of his re- 
treat, supplied his wants by means of their children, a boy and girl 
of ten and thirteen years. He one day detained the children in the 
hope that their parents would seek them, and thus have the oppor- 
tunity of religious instruction from the good bishop. His plan 
succeeded, and eventually they with their children were baptized and 
suffered martyrdom together ! Baron., Ann., iii, 69. Even though 
unauthentic, this story is a type, doubtless, of many incidents which 
occurred in the strange social relations of the church in the Catacombs. 
* Xistum in cimiterio animadversum sciatis . . . et cum eo diac- 
onos quatuor. — Cypr., Epis., lxxx, ad Successitm. 



86 The Catacombs of Rome. 

At the time when the sword pierced the tender heart of the 
Mother [church,] I, the ruler buried here, was teaching the laws 
of heaven. Suddenly came [the enemy,] who seized me sitting as I 
was. Then the people presented their necks to the soldiers sent 
against me. Soon the old man saw who sought to bear away the 
palm, and was the first to offer himself and his own head, that impa- 
tient rage might injure no one else. Christ who bestows the rewards 
of life, manifests the merit of the pastor : he himself defends the 
flock.* 

Thus seven bishops of the church at Rome fell in 
succession by the hand of the headsman, five of them in 
the space of eight years — heroic athletes of Christ who, 
at the very seat of paganism, as in a mighty theatre of 
God, bore the brunt of persecution, and, conquering 
even in death, received the martyr's crown and palm. 

The accession of Gallienusf restored peace to the 
church. His decree granting complete religious tolera- 
tion, the restoration of confiscated ecclesiastical prop- 
erty, and permission to " recover what they called their 
cemeteries," J won the gratitude of his Christian subjects. 
His character, however, by no means justified the epithet 
of " holy and pious emperor " bestowed by Dionysius of 
Alexandria. § This was the first formal recognition of 
Christianity as a religio licita, or legalized faith, and for 
forty years the church enjoyed comparative repose ; at 

* Another martyr whose Acts, although disfigured with some gro- 
tesque and exaggerated circumstances, contain elements of great 
beauty, was Lawrence, a deacon of the bishop Sixtus. Esteeming it 
no sacrilege, but rather the highest consecration of the property of 
the church, he distributed it in alms among the suffering Christians. 
Being commanded to surrender to the emperor the confiscated 
ecclesiastical treasure, he presented to the commissioner a number 
of aged and impotent poor, saying, " These are the treasures of the 
church." After incredible tortures, which form the subject of many 
a picture of Roman Catholic art, he is said to have been roasted U 
death over a slow fire. Ambros., Officin., i, 41. 

f A. D. 259. \ Euseb., Hist. Ecclcs., viii, 13. § lb., viii, 23. 



Their Origin and Early History. 87 

least such repose as was possible while twenty rival 
emperors — fantastic things " that likeness of a kingly 
crown had on " — struggled for the supremacy, and har- 
ried the land with their mutual devastations. During 
this period, Felix, the bishop of the Roman church, 
who, according to the Liber Pontificalis, was exceedingly 
diligent in honouring the martyrs of the Catacombs, be- 
came himself a conscript of that noble army, and was 
beheaded, in accordance with an imperial decree, as was 
also Agapetus, a Christian of noble rank. 

The mild and amiable Tacitus * ruled over a turbulent 
people only six months. His brother Florian retained 
the purple only half that time. Probus, " the just," 
whose name, says his epitaph, expressed his character,! 
fell by the hands of his own tumultuous legionaries. 
The sensual and abominable Carinus displayed the ex- 
travagancies of Heliogabalus, aggravated by the cruelty 
of Domitian. In his reign died Eutychianus, whose 
epitaph and title— EYTYXIANOC EniC— have been 
found in the " Papal Crypt " of Callixtus. % 

Christianity was destined to undergo a final ordeal 

* A. D. 275. 

t Probus et vere probus situs est. Obiit A. D. 283. 

% Gregory of Tours, writing in the sixth century, asserts that under 
Numerian, the brother and contemporary of Carinus, Chrysanthus 
and Daria suffered martyrdom in a Catacomb on the Via Salaria. 
A number of the faithful being observed to visit their tombs, the 
emperor ordered the entrance to be built up and covered with a heap 
of sand and stones, that they might be buried alive in common mar- 
tyrdom. When their remains were discovered by Damasus, in the 
fourth century*, he refrained from removing them, and simply made 
an opening from an adjacent gallery, that pilgrims to the early shrines 
of the faith might behold, without disturbing it, this "Christian 
Pompeii." Gregory asserts that these interesting relics were still to 
be seen in his day — the skeletons of men, women, and children lying 
on the floor, and even the silver vessels [urcei argentei) which they 
used. 



88 The Catacombs of Rome. 

before it should ascend the throne of the Caesars. The 
church must pass once more through the purifying 
flames of persecution before it was fit to be entrusted 
with the reins of empire. The long peace and temporal 
prosperity had fostered pride and luxury, and relaxed 
the morals of the Christian community. Schisms and 
feuds destroyed the unity of the faith, and the 
bishops had begun to aspire to temporal power, and to 
assert an unwarranted authority. " Prelates inveighed 
against prelates," says Eusebius, " and people rose against 
people, assailing each other with words as with darts and 
spears."* The blasts of adversity were necessary to 
winnow the spurious and false away, and to leave the 
tried and true behind. From the fatal slumber of re- 
ligious apathy into which the church was falling it was 
to be rudely awakened. Its former afflictions sank into 
insignificance compared with this great tribulation, which 
was pre-eminently called The Persecution by the his- 
torian of the times.f 

The close of the third century witnessed the strange 
spectacle of the government of the Roman world by a 
group of men who had climbed to the giddy height of 
power from the lowest stations in life. Diocletian, 
originally a slave, or at least the son of a slave, reduced 
the haughty aristocracy of Rome to a condition of 
oriental servility. Maximian, a Pannonian peasant, be- 
trayed the savageness of his nature by his bloodthirsty 
cruelty. Galerius, an Illyrian herdsman, but exhib- 
ited more conspicuously upon the throne of empire the 
native barbarity of his character. Constantius was of 
nobler birth than any of his colleagues, and he alone 
adorned his lofty station by dignity, justice, and clem- 
ency. The world groaned under the oppression of its 

* Euseb., Hist. Eccles., viii, I. \ Ibid. 



Their Origin and Early History. 89 

cruel masters. So exhausting were their exactions that 
none remained to tax, says Lactantius,* but the beggars. 
The early years of the reign of Diocletian were char- 
acterized for the most part by principles of religious tol- 
eration. Indeed, his wife and daughter, the empresses 
Prisca and Valeria, favoured, if they did not adopt, 
the Christian faith, and some of the first officers of the 
imperial household belonged to the now powerful sect.f 
But even during this period the Christians were not free 
from danger. Caius, the Roman bishop, is said to have 
lived for eight years in the Catacombs on account of 
the persecution, and at last underwent martyrdom in 
the year A. D. 296. J Marcus and Marcelianus, two 
Roman Christians of noble rank, who have given their 
name to one of the Catacombs, suffered about this time. 
Others, especially in the army, where the ancient faith 
had firmest hold, and where, indeed, Eusebius says, the 
persecution began, § endured martyrdom as the valiant 
soldiers of Christ. The storm, of which these events 
were the precursors, at length burst with fury on the 
Christians in the year 303. A series of cruel edicts, 
written, says Eusebius, with a dagger's point, |j were 
fulminated for the extirpation of the Christian name. \ 

* De Mort. Per sec, c. xxiii. t Euseb., Hist. Eccles., viii, I. 

% Caius . . . fugiens persecutionem Diocletiani in cryptis habitando, 
martyrio coronatur. — Lib. Pontif.; cf. Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vii, 32. 

§ 'Ek tC>v kv arparelaic udeltytiv KciTapxofievov tov diuyfiov. — Hist. 
Eccles., viii, 1. 

|| Vita Const., ii, 54. 

Tf The following inscription, found in Spain, and given by Gruter, 
neems designed as the funeral monument of dead and buried Chris- 
tianity. But though apparently destroyed, like its divine Author, in- 
stinct with immortality it rose triumphant over all its foes. 

DIOCLETIAN ■ CAES • AUG • GALERIO • IN ORIENTE • ADOPT- SVPER 
STITIONE CHRIST -VBIQ. DELETA ET CVLTV DEOR • PROPAGATO • 

"To Diocletian, Csesar Augustus, having adopted Galerins in the 



90 The Catacombs of Rome. 

They were framed with malignant ingenuity, so as to 
leave no chance of escape save in open apostasy. All 
ecclesiastical property was confiscated. The churches 
were razed to the ground, and the sacred scriptures burned 
with fire.* All assemblies for worship were prohibited 
on pain of death. The clergy of every order were zeal- 
ously sought out, and thrust into dungeons designed 
for the worst of felons, f The whole Christian com- 
munity was outlawed, degraded from every secular office, 
deprived of the rights of citizenship, and exposed to the 
punishment of the vilest slaves. With intensifying vio- 
lence edict followed edict, like successive strokes of 
thunder in a raging storm. A universal and relentless 
proscription of the Christian name took place. The 
truculent monster Galerius, of whom his Christian sub- 
jects said, that he never supped without human blood, J 
proposed that all who refused to sacrifice to the gods 
should be burned alive ; and the fiendish ingenuity of 
the persecutors was exhausted in devising fresh tortures 
for their victims. 

In Italy, and especially at Rome, the work of de • 
struction was eagerly carried on by Maximian, an 
implacable enemy of the Christians ; and after his death 
by the abominable voluptuary Maxentius, in whom the 
twin passions of cruelty and lust struggled for the mas- 
East, the Christian superstition being every-where destroyed, and the 
worship of the gods extended." 

* Euseb., Hist. Eceles., viii, 2. The effects of the persecution were 
felt even in Britain. (Gildas, de Excid. Britan., m Bingham, viii, i.) 
Alban was the first British martyr at a somewhat earlier date. 

t "The dungeons destined for murderers," says Eusebius, "were 
filled with bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists, so that 
there was no room left for those condemned for crime." — Hist. 
Eceles. 

\ Nee unquam sine cruore humano ccenabat. — Lactan., de Mart 
Persec. 



Their Origin and Early History. 9 1 

tery. These monsters of iniquity revelled in a carnival 
of blood, and glutted the Catacombs with victims, some 
of the most illustrious of whom will shortly be men- 
tioned. On the retirement of Diocletian, satiated with 
slaughter and weary with the cares of state, to his re- 
treat at Salonica, Galerius continued the persecution 
with increased zeal. It was the expiring effort of pagan- 
ism, the death throes of its mortal agony. But the 
Christian religion, like the trodden grass that ranker 
grows, flourished still in spite of the oppression it en- 
dured. Like the rosemary and thyme, which the more 
they are bruised give out the richer perfume, it breathed 
forth the odours of sanctity which are fragrant in the 
world to-day. Though the frail and the fickle fell off in 
the blast of adversity, the staunch and true remained ; 
and from the martyr's blood, more prolific than the 
fabled dragon's teeth, a new host of Christian heroes 
rose, contending for the martyr's starry and unwither- 
ing crown. 

But the period of deliverance was at hand. Smitten 
by the power of that God whose titles and attributes he 
had usurped, the wretched Galerius, amid the agonies of 
a loathsome disease, implored the intercessions of the 
Christians whom he had so ruthlessly proscribed. With 
sublimest magnanimity the church exhibited the nobil- 
ity of a Gospel revenge, and obeyed the injunction of 
its divine Master to pray for those who persecuted and 
despitefully used it. From the dying couch of the re- 
morseful monarch came an abject apology for his cruel 
deeds; and, in late atonement for his crime, a decree 
of amplest recognition of Christianity, and restoration 
of the right to worship God. Like the trump of jubilee, 
the edict of deliverance pealed through the land. It 
penetrated the gloomy dungeon, the darksome mine, 



92 The Catacoidbs of Rome. 

the catacomb's dim labyrinth , and from their sombre 
depths vast processions of the " noble wrestlers of re- 
ligion"* thronged to the long forsaken churches with 
grateful songs of praise to God. 

But this treacherous calm was soon to be again broken. 
The superstitious tyrant Maximin endeavoured to revive 
the dying paganism, and to renew the persecution. He 
paid Christianity the high compliment of attempting a 
complete organization of the heathen priesthood on the 
model of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and restored the 
ancient worship with unwonted pomp. He prohibited 
the assemblies in the cemeteries, and reiterated the 
edict of extermination against the Christians, f But the 
loathsome death of this brutal voluptuary soon delivered 
the church from the most implacable of its foes. From 
the distant island of Britain — that ultimate far Thule 
of the empire — had arrived the Caesar who should en- 
throne the new faith on the seat of its persecutors, and 
establish it as the religion of the state, % an event 
more perilous to its purity and spiritual power than 
the direst oppression it had ever endured. Constan- 
tine having overcome the enemies of Christianity, 
who were also his own, became its protector, more, it is 
easy to believe, either from conviction of its truth or 
from policy than on account of the alleged miraculous 
vision of the cross of Christ, the presage of a bloody 

* Date of Edict, April 30, A. D. 311. Euseb., Hist. Eccles.,\x, 1. 

t Eusebius gives the edict, taken from a brazen tablet at Tyre, in 
which the Emperor speaks of "the votaries of an execrable vanity, 
like a funeral pile long disregarded and smothered, again rising in 
mighty flames and rekindling the extinguished brands." Hist. Ecclcs., 
ix, 9. 

% The courtly panegyrist of Constantine gratefully speaks of him 
as a "light and deliverer arising in the dense and impenetrable dark- 
ness of a gloomy night." Euseb., Hist. Eccles., x, 8. 



Their Origin and Early History. 93 

victory.* He issued at Milan, A. D. 313, that decree 
of full and unlimited toleration f which became thence- 
forth the charter of the church's liberties. J 

* Eusebius compares the victory of the Milvian Bridge to that of 
Moses and the Israelites over Pharaoh and his hosts. I/ist.Ecc/es. ix,g. 

\ Daremus et Christianis et omnibus liberam potestatem sequen- 
di religionem quam quisque voluisset — " We give to the Christians, 
and to all, the free choice to follow whatever mode of worship they 
may -wish." — Decree of Milan, preserved in Lactantius, de Mort. Persec, 
and in Euseb., Hist. Eccles., x, 5. 

% In the violent deaths or loathsome diseases of many of their per- 
secutors the Christians recognized the retributive judgments of the 
Almighty, which were considered so remarkable as to occasion the 
special treatise de Mortibus Persecutorum, attributed to the pen of 
Lactantius. Nero died ignominiously by his own hand. Domitian 
was assassinated. During the reign of Aurelius war, famine, and 
pestilence wasted the land. Decius perished miserably in a marsh, 
and his body became the prey of the prowling jackal and unclean 
buzzard. Valerian, captured by the Persians, after having served as 
a footstool to his haughty foe, is said to have been flayed alive and 
his skin stuffed with straw. Aurelian was slain by the hand of a 
trusted servant, and Carinus by the dagger of a husband whom he 
had irreparably wronged. Diocletian, having languished for years 
the prey of painful maladies, which even affected his reason, it is 
said committed suicide. Galerius, like those rivals in bloodshed and 
persecution, Herod and Philip II., became an object of loathing and 
abhorrence, being "eaten of worms" while yet alive. Maximian 
fell by the hand of the public executioner ; and Maxentius, in the 
hour of defeat, was smothered in the ooze of the Tiber beneath the 
walls of his capital. Severus opened his own veins and bled to death. 
The first Maximin was murdered ; the second, a fugitive and an exile, 
committed suicide by poison, and, according to Eusebius, was so con- 
sumed by internal torments that " his body became the tomb of his 
soul." Licinius, the last of the persecutors, was slain by his ferocious 
soldiery, and his name, by a decree of the Senate, forever branded 
with infamy. Thus with indignities and tortures,- often surpassing 
those they inflicted on their Christian subjects, perished the enemies 
of the church of God, as if pursued by a divine retribution no less 
inexorable than the avenging Nemesis of the pagan mythology. See 
Lactantius. de Mort. Persec, passim ; Euseb., Hist. Eccles., viii, 17 ; ix, 
9, 10 ; Tertul., Ad, Scap., c. 3. 



94 The Catacombs of Rom&. 

The sufferings of the more illustrious victims of perse- 
cution are alone recorded in history, which is silent con- 
cerning the great army of unknown martyrs, whose names 
are recorded only in the Book of Life. The bishops of 
the church were ever the first to feel the tyrants' rage. 
The episcopal chair was often but the stepping-stone to 
the scaffold. Yet faithful shepherds were not wanting 
to lead the flock of Christ, and to testify their devotion 
to their trust by the sacrifice of their lives. We have 
seen how Caius suffered even before the final outbreak 
of persecution. Marcellinus, his successor, incurred 
the resentment of the tyrant Maxentius, was degraded 
to the office of groom of the public stables, where the 
horses of the circus were kept^ and soon sank beneath 
the weight of his miseries and those of the church.* 
Marcellus, sometimes confounded with Marcellinus, paid 
the penalty of exile for his firmness in maintaining the 
ecclesiastical discipline against those who apostatized 
from the faith in those times of fiery trial. This event 
is recorded in the Damasine inscription : 

VERIDICVS RECTOR LAPSOS QVIA CRIMINA FLERE 
PRAEDIXIT MISERIS FVIT OMNIBVS HOSTIS AMARVS 
HINC FVROR HINC ODIVM SEQVITVR DISCORDIA LITES 
SEDITIO CAEDES SOLVVNTVR FOEDERA PACIS 
CRIMEN OB ALTERIVS CHRISTVM QVI IN PACE NEGAVIT 
FINIBVS EXPVLSVS PATRIAE EST FERITATE TYRANNI 
HAEC BREVITER DAMASVS VOLVIT COMPERTA REFERRE 
MARCELLI VT POPVLVS MERITVM COGNOSCERE POSSET. f 

* The church of St. Marcello, in the Corso, commemorates the 
scene of his indignities. There is reason to believe that each church 
or titulus within the city had its own cemetery without the walls, 
over which the presbyter of the title had jurisdiction. Marcellinus, 
as bishop, had charge of the ecclesiastical Cemetery of Callixtus, as 
appears from a contemporary inscription. 

f Gruter, Inscrip., p. 1172, No. 3. 



Their Origin and Early History. 95 

The truth-speaking ruler, because he preached that the lapsed 
should weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those unhappy 
ones. Hence fury, hence hatred followed, discord, contentions, sedi- 
tion, and slaughter; and the bonds of peace were ruptured. For the 
crime of another, who in a time of peace had denied Christ, he was 
expelled the shores of his country by the cruelty of the tyrant. These 
things Damasus having learned, was desirous to relate briefly, that 
the people might recognize the merit of Marcellus. 

Neither Marcellus nor Marcellinus was buried in the 
Catacomb of Callixtus — which, as Diocletian had con- 
fiscated all the public cemeteries, was inaccessible to 
the Christians — but in the private crypt of the Christian 
matron Priscilla, on the Salarian Way. Eusebius, the 
successor of Marcellus, was also banished on account 
of the controversy concerning the " lapsed." New light 
has recently been thrown on this subject by De Rossi's 
discovery, in the tomb of the bishop, of the following 
Damasine inscription in a fragmentary condition : 

HERACLIVS VETVIT LABSOS \sic\ PECCATA DOLERE 
EVSEBIVS MISEROS DOCVIT SVA CRIMINA FLERE 
SCINDITVR [IN] PARTES POPVLOS GLISCENTE FVRORE 
SEDITIO CAEDES BELLVM DISCORDIA LITES 
EXTEMPLO PARITER PVLSI FERITATE TYRANNI 
INTEGRA CVM RECTOR SERVARET FOEDERA PACIS 
PERTVLIT EXILIVM DOMINO SVB IVDICELAETVS 
LITORE TRIN ACRIOMVNDVM VITAMQ • RELIQUIT. 

Heraclius forbade the lapsed to grieve for their sins. Eusebius 
taught those unhappy ones to weep for their crimes. The people 
were rent in parties, and with increasing fury began sedition, slaughter, 
fighting, discord, and strife. Straightway both were banished by the 
cruelty of the tyrant, although the ruler was preserving the bonds of 
peace inviolate. He bore his exile with joy, looking to the Lord as 
his Judge, and on the Trinacrian shore gave up the world and his life. 

The Heraclius mentioned in the inscription is proba- 
bly the heretical leader referred to in the epitaph of 
Marcellus, previously given. No reference to this event 
occurs in any of the ecclesiastical writers, and this 



96 The Catacombs of Rome. 

inscription, says Dr. Northcote, is the recovery of a lost 
chapter in the history of the church.* The remains of 
Eusebius were brought from Sicily, the place of his 
exile, by his successor, Melchiades, and interred in the 
Catacomb of Callixtus, but not with the other bishops, 
the approaches to whose tomb were blocked up with 
earth, probably to prevent its violation by the enemies 
of the faith. Melchiades, with whom the long suc- 
cession of Rome's martyr bishops comes to a close, was 
the last of his order who was buried in the Catacombs, 
and De Rossi conjectures that he has discovered in the 
Cemetery of Callixtus his tomb, and the very sarcopha- 
gus in which he lay.f 

One of the most illustrious of the lay martyrs of the 
Diocletian persecution was the gallant young soldier 
Sebastian, who has given his name to one of the most 
ancient basilicas of Rome and to the adjacent Cata- 
comb, and Adauctus, a treasurer of the imperial palace. 
In the Damasine epitaph of the latter occur the fine lines : 

INTEMERATA FIDE CONTEMPTO PRINCIPE MVNDI 
CONFESSVS XRM CAELESTIA REGNA PETISTI. % 

With unfaltering faith, despising the lord of the world, having 
confessed Christ, thou didst seek the celestial realms. 

* Rom. Sott., p. 172. 

+ There is a pleasing tradition recorded of Sylvester, the successor 
of Melchiades, to the effect that, having fled, on account of the per- 
secution, to the caverns of Mount Soracte, the Emperor Constantine 
sent for him to receive religious instruction. Seeing the soldiers ap- 
proach, as he thought to lead him to martyrdom, Sylvester exclaimed, 
"Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation," but was 
in a few days installed as bishop of Rome in the imperial palace of 
the Lateran. Soracte, once sacred to Apollo and the Muses, but now 
to Christ and the saints, is known, in commemoration of this event, 
as Monte San Silvestro. 

% Gruter, p. 1171, No. 8. 



Their Origin and Early History. 9/ 

Several of the Christian cemeteries receive their des- 
ignation from the martyrs of this period, among others 
those of Saints Agnes, Peter, and Marcellinus, of Pan- 
cratius, Generosa, Zeno, Soteris, and Quattro Incoronati^ 
notice of whom will be more appropriate in the accounts 
of their respective sepulchres. History has also pre- 
served the names of many other valiant coniessors, who 
proved faithful even unto death amid the fiery trials 
and cruel mockings and scourgings to which they were 
exposed. Among these may be mentioned Cosmo and 
Damian, two holy brothers of Cilicia, who practised in 
Rome with great skill the healing art, from pure love to 
God and to their fellow-men, refusing to receive aught 
for their services ; * Simplicius and Faustinus, who were 
drowned in the Tiber by the tyrant's orders, and their 
martyred sister Beatrice, whose tombs and epitaphs De 
Rossi believes he has recovered. \ Most of the legends, 
however, of what may be called the Romish mythology 
are disfigured by absurd and superstitious additions; 
and the martyrs themselves have become the objects of 
idolatrous veneration far alien from the spirit of that 
primitive Christianity for which they died.J 

* Their names and piety are commemorated by two churches in 
Rome. Eusebius also records with approbation the story of the 
Christian matron Sophronia, wife of the Prefect of Rome, who com- 
mitted suicide to escape the polluting embraces of the tyrant Max- 
entius. Hist. Eccles., viii, 14. 

\ Bullettino, January, 1869. 

% The following satirical remarks of De Brosses, a Romanist writer, 
concerning the supply of relics from the Catacomb of St. Agnes, will 
indicate how unauthentic are these objects of veneration : " Vous 
pourriez voir ici la capitale des Catacombes de toute la chretiente. 
Les martyrs, les confesseurs, et les vierges, y fourmillent de tous 
cotes. Quand on se fait besoin de quelques reliques en pays etranger, 
le Pape n'a qu'a descendre ici et crier, Qui de vous autres vent allet 
etre saint en Pologne ? Alors s'il se trouve quelque mort de bonne 
volonte il se leve et s'en va." 



98 The Catacombs of Rome. 

The following inscriptions from the Catacombs are 
the only records of the victims of persecution whose 
names they bear. 




TOfrfCIEIWjt 




FW/ur 



Pig. 21 — Lannus, the martyr of Christ, rests here. He suf- 
fered under Diocletian. For his successors also. 



% 



TV PRIMITIVS IN PACE QVI POST 

MVLTAS ANGVSTIAS FORTISSIMVS MARTYR 
ET VIXIT ANNOS P • M • XXXVIII CONIVG • SVO 
PERDVLCISSIMO BENEMERENTI FECIT. 



Primitius in peace, ' after many torments, a most valiant martyr. 
He lived thirty-eight years, more or less. [His wife] raised this to 
her dearest husband, the well-deserving. 

HIC GORDIANVS GALLIAE NVNCIVS 
IVGVLATVS PRO FIDE CVM FAMILIA TOT A 
QVIESCVNT IN PACE 
THEOPHILA ANCILLA FECIT. 

Here lies Gordianus, deputy of Gaul, who was executed for the 
faith, with all his family : they rest in peace. Theophila, a hand- 
maid, set up this.* 



* From the Catacomb of St. Agnes. The ancient Martyrology re- 
corns the conversion of a Roman nobleman of tliis name in the time 



Their Origin and Early History. 99 

The history of the Catacombs is inextricably inter- 
woven with that of Christianity. Their very structure 
reflects the character of the times in which they were 
made. The absence of constraint or concealment, and 
I he superior construction and ornamentation of those 
belonging to the earliest times, indicate the comparative 
security of the church before it had awakened the 
jealousy or fear of the Roman emperors. Their im- 
mense extension and crowded galleries testify to the 
rapid increase of the Christian community. The altered 
character which they gradually assumed, the obstructed 
passages, the masked entrances, devious windings, and 
devices for concealment or escape, and the rudely 
scratched inscriptions and uncouth paintings, betray the 
sense of fear and the kindling rage of persecution which 
pursued the hunted Christians to these subterraneous 
sanctuaries of the faith. Their greater magnificence 
and more ornate structure, the costly mosaics, the marble 
stairways, and richly carved sarcophagi of the later ages, 
tell of the enthronement of Christianity on the seat of 
the Caesars, and of the homage paid to the relics and 
shrines of the saints and martyrs. And their debased 
architecture, barbarous paintings, and progressive ruin 
during the later years of their history indicate the grad- 
ual eclipse of art, and their final abandonment. We 
must therefore carefully determine at least the proximate 
date of any particular feature if we would correctly in- 
terpret its significance. 

of Julian, together with that of his wife and fifty-three members of 
his household, and his subsequent martyrdom and burial in the Cata- 
combs. It is probable that Theophila had learned in Gaul to write 
Latin, though only in those singular Greek characters which, as 
Julius Caesar informs us, were used in that country, and that, after 
the death of the whole family, she employed some equally unlettered 
stone-mason to engrave this remarkable inscription. 

L.ofC. 



i do The Catacombs of Rome. 

The last and most terrible persecution of the church 
before its final triumph left abundant evidence of its 
violence and lengthened duration in the changes which 
contemporaneously took place in the Catacombs. God 
prepared a place for his saints, and hid them in the clefts 
of the rock as in the hollow of his hand. When the 
public observance of Christianity was proscribed by law 
the believers withdrew from the light of day, and in the 
inmost and darkest recesses of these subterranean crypts, 
by the graves of their martyred dead, enjoyed the con- 
solation of religious worship, and broke the bread and 
drank the wine in memory of their dying Lord.* 

But after the decree of Valerian which forbade the 
entering or holding any assemblies in the Christian cem- 
eteries, even these retreats were not safe, and the last 
sanctuaries of the faith were unscrupulously invaded. 
Persecution relentlessly followed the Christians through 
the labyrinthine windings of the Catacombs, and vio- 
lated the sepulchres of the sainted dead by sacrilegious 
tumult and bloodshed. Sometimes the heathen soldiery, 
fearing to pursue their victims into these unknown pas- 
sages, blocked up the entrance to prevent their escape ; 
and many were thus buried alive and perished of hunger 
in these chambers of gloom. f 

An entire change in the construction of the Cata- 
combs now took place. They became obviously de- 
signed for purposes of safety and concealment. The 
new galleries were less wide and lofty, and the locuh 
more crowded on account of the greater difficulty of 

* De Rossi gives several dated inscriptions of the reign of Diocle- 
tian, (Nos. 16 to 28,) thus absolutely identifying the age of those 
portions of the Catacombs. 

f In Hawthorne's "Marble Faun" there is a fantastic legend of 
" The Spectre of the Catacombs," the ghost of an apostate betrayei 
of the Christians, which still haunts the scene of its hateful perfidy. 



Their Origin and Early History. 



10 



removing the excavated material. At this time, too, 
many of the lower piani were made for additional graves 
and greater secrecy. The main entrances were blocked 
up and the stairways demolished. Sometimes entire 
galleries were filled with earth, the removal of which is 
the chief obstacle to modern exploration, or were built up 
with masonry to obstruct pursuit ; and means of escape 
were provided, in case of forcible invasion of these re- 
treats. A striking example of this occurs in the Cata- 
comb of Callixtus. The ancient stairway was partially 
destroyed, the entrance completely obstructed, and 
some of the galleries walled up. Narrow passages for 
escape were made connecting with an adjacent aretiarium, 




Fig. 22— Secret stairway into Arenarium. 
and i very narrow secret stairway constructed from the 
roof of the latter to the surface of the ground, as shown 
in the section above, which stairway could only be 
reached by a movable ladder connecting it with the floor.* 
* See plan of this arenarium and stairway in chap, v, fig. 26. 



102 The Catacombs of Rome. 

It is impossible that the mass of the Christian commu 
nity, or even any considerable proportion of it, could ever 
have taken refuge in these subterraneous crypts. Their 
vast extent and the number of chambers would indeed 
permit a great multitude to remain concealed for a time 
in their depths ; but the difficulty of procuring a regular 
supply of food, the confined atmosphere, and the prob- 
able exhalation of noxious gases from the graves — espe- 
cially on the opening of a h'somus, or double tomb, for its 
second inmate — seem insuperable obstacles. As it was 
the religious leaders of the Christian community who 
were especially obnoxious to those in power, they would 
be the most likely to seek concealment in the Catacombs, 
not from inferiority of courage, but, like the afterward 
martyred Cyprian, that they might the better guide and 
govern the persecuted church. Hence the examples 
before given of bishops and other ecclesiastics lying hid- 
den, some for years, in these depths, and visited by the 
faithful for instruction or for the celebration of worship * 
There is evidence, however, that during the exacerba- 
tions of persecution private Christians sought safety in 
these recesses, and, burrowing in their depths, evaded 
the pursuit of their enemies. Tertullian speaks of " a 
lady, unaccustomed to privation, trembling in a vault, 
apprehensive of the capture of her maid, upon whom 
she depends for her daily food." The heads of Chris- 
tian families, and those most obnoxious to the pagan 
authorities, would be especially likely to leave the fel- 
lowship of the living in order to live in security among 
the dead. Father Marchi conjectures that supplies of 

* In A. D. 359 Liberius, bishop of Rome, lay hid for a year in the 
Catacomb of St. Agnes, till the death of the Arian Constantius ; and 
in A. D. 418 Boniface I. in the Catacomb of St. Felicitas, during the 
usurpation of the antipope Eulalius. 



Their Origin and Early History. 103 

grain were laid up for the maintenance of the hidden 
fugitives, and De Rossi describes certain crypts in the 
Catacomb of Callixtus which were probably employed 
for storing corn or wine in time of persecution. Fre- 
quent wells occur, amply sufficient for the supply of 
water ; and the multitude of lamps which have been 
found would dispel the darkness, while their sudden 
extinction would prove the best concealment from at- 
tack by their enemies.* Hence the Christians were 
stigmatized as a skulking, darkness-loving race, \ who 
fled the light of day to burrow like moles in the earth. 

These worse than Daedalian labyrinths were admi- 
rably adapted for eluding pursuit. Familiar with their 
intricacies, and following a well-known clew, the Chris- 
tian could plunge fearlessly into the darkness, where his 
pursuer would soon be inextricably lost. Perchance 
the sound of Christian worship, and the softened cadence 
of the confessors' hymn, stealing through the distant 
corridors, may have fallen with strange awe on the souls 
of the rude soldiery stealthily approaching their prey; 
and, perhaps, not unfrequently with a saving and sanc- 
tifying power. But sometimes, tracked by the sleuth- 
hounds of persecution, or betrayed by some wretched 
apostate consumed by a Judas-greed of gold, the Chris- 
tians were surprised at their devotions, and their refuge 
became their sepulchre. Such was the tragic fate of 
Stephen, slstfn even while ministering at the altar; such 
the event described by Gregory of Tours, when a heca- 
tomb of victims were immolated at once by heathen 
hate ; such the peril which wrung from a stricken heart 
the cry, not of anger but of grief, Tempora infausta, qui- 

* The similar excavations of Quesnel, in France, were long inhab- 
ited by both human beings and' cattle. 

t Latcbrosa et lucifugax natio. — Mimic. Felix. 



104 T/w Catacombs of Rome. 

bus inter sacra et vota ne in cavernis quidem salvari possi- 
mus ! — "O sad times in which, among sacred rites and 
prayers, even in caverns, we are not safe ! " It requires 
no great effort of imagination to conceive the dangers 
and escapes which must have been frequent episodes in 
the heroic lives of the early soldiers of the cross. 

In the Catacombs more safely than elsewhere could 
the Christians celebrate the ordinances of religion, 
often under cover of the rites of sepulture, which might 
even yet be sacred in the eyes of their enemies. And 
next to their funeral purposes this seems to have been 
their chief use. For this many of their principal cham- 
bers and chapels were excavated,- supplied with seats, 
ventilated by luminari, and adorned with biblical or 
symbolical paintings. With what emotions must the 
primitive believers have held their solemn worship and 
heard the words of life, surrounded by the dead in 
Christ ! With what power would come the promise of 
the resurrection of the body, amid the crumbling relics 
of mortality ! How fervent their prayers for their com- 
panions in tribulation, when they themselves stood in 
jeopardy every hour ! Their holy ambition was to wit- 
ness a good confession even unto death. They burned 
to emulate the zeal of the martyrs of the faith, the 
plumeless heroes of a nobler chivalry than that of arms, 
the Christian athletes who won in the bloody conflicts 
of the arena, or amid the fiery tortures of the stake, not 
a crown of laurel or of bay, but a crown of life, starry 
and unwithering, that can never pass away. Their 
humble graves are grander monuments than the trophied 
tombs of Rome's proud conquerors upon the Appian 
Way. Lightly may we tread beside their ashes ; rever- 
ently may we mention their na/nes. Though the bodily 
presence of those conscripts of the tomb — the forlorn 



Their Origin and Early History. 105 

hope of the army of Christianity — no longer walked 
among men, their intrepid spirit animated the heart of 
each member of that little community of persecuted 
Christians, " of whom the world was not worthy ; who 
wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and 
caves of the earth, . . . being destitute, afflicted, tor- 
mented."* 

It is impossible to arrive at even an approximate esti- 
mate of the number of victims of the early persecutions. 
That number has sometimes, no doubt, been greatly ex- 
aggerated. It has also, in defiance of the testimony 
of contemporary history, been unreasonably minified, f 
Tacitus asserts that under Nero a great multitude J 
were convicted and punished. Pliny says the temples 
were almost deserted § through this contagious super- 
stition. Juvenal, Martial, and other classical authors, 
notice the extraordinary sufferings of the Christians. 
Cyprian, in the middle of the third century, says, " It 
is impossible to number the martyrs of Christ." || Euse- 
bius, an eye-witness of the last persecution, states that 
innumerable multitudes suffered during its prevalence. 
After describing their excruciating tortures, he adds : 

* Compare the following spirited lines of Bernis : 

" La terre avait gemi sous le fer des tyrans ; 
Elle cachait encore des martyrs expirans, 
Qui dans les noirs detours des grottes reculees 
Derobaient aux bourreaux leurs tetes mutilees." 

Pohne de la Religion Vengee, chap. viii. 

t See especially Dodwell's learned but unsatisfactory Essay, De 
Paucitate Martyrum, and Gibbon's laboured extenuation of the sever- 
ity of the persecutors. 

X Ingens multitude — Ann., xv. 

§ Jam desolata templa. — Epis., 97, lib. x. 

|| Exuberante copia virtutis et fidei numerari non possunt martyres 
Cliristi. — Lib. de Exhort. Martyr., c. xi. 



106 The Catacombs of Rome. 

" And all these things were doing not for a few days, 
but for a series of whole years. At one time ten or more, 
then twenty, again thirty or even sixty, and sometimes a 
hundred men, with their wives and children, were slain 
in one day."* He also describes the destruction of a 
Christian town, with all its inhabitants, by fire, f Lac- 
tantius, also a contemporary witness, tells us that the 
Christians were often surrounded on all sides and burnt 
together. % 

It is very remarkable that so few martyrs' epitaphs . 
have been found in the Catacombs, not more than five 
or six altogether, and some of these are not of unques- 
tioned genuineness. But this may be attributed to the 
humility and modesty of the early Christians, who shrank 
from claiming for the sufferers for the truth the august 
title of martyr, which they restricted to the one faithful 
and true witness, Jesus Christ. " We," said the victims 
of persecution at Lyons, " are only mean and humble 
confessors." 

There do occur, it is true, certain inscriptions of 
a memorial character and of later date than the 
time of the persecution, some of which commemorate a 
large number of martyrs, but they are of little or no 
historic value. Such is the inscription to three thou- 
sand martyrs in the Catacomb of Priscilla, already 
given, § and the following from the Callixtan Catacomb : 
marcella et christi martyres ccccl — " Marcella and 
four hundred and fifty martyrs in Christ." Ancient itin- 
eraries speak of eighty, or even eight hundred, martyrs 
buried in one spot in the Catacombs; and Prudentius 

* Euseb., Hist. Eccles., viii, 9. f Ibid., viii, n. 

\ Universum populum cum ipso pariter conventiculo concremavit. 
Lactan., Instit. Divin., v, 11 : Gregatim amburebantur. — Ibid. 
§ Page 78. 



Their Origin and Early History. 107 

declares that he saw the remains of some sixty in a 
single grave.* But surpassing all the others in exaggera- 
tion is an inscription in the church of St. Sebastian 
commemorating one hundred and seventy-four thou- 
sand holy martyrs, and forty-six bishops, also martyrs, 
said to be interred in the neighbouring Catacomb. 
Another ancient tradition asserts that twelve thousand 
Christians, who were employed in building the Baths of 
Diocletian, were buried in the Catacomb of St. Zeno. f 
Piazza asserts that two hundred and eighty-five Chris- 
tians were put to death in two days, under the Emperor 
Claudius II., A. D. 268, and that more than two thou- 
sand were executed for refusing to sacrifice to the image 
of the sun. Indeed, some Roman archaeologists discern 
in every palm branch or cup, which are so frequently 
found in the Catacombs, irrefragable evidence of the 
martyr's tomb. % 

Such atrocious cruelty and lavish destruction of life 

* Sexaginta illic defossas mole sub una 

Reliquias memini me didicisse hominum. — Peristeph., xi. 

t The story of the martyrdom of ten thousand Christians on Mount 
Ararat, under Trajan, and of the massacre of the Thundering Legion, 
consisting of six thousand Christians, by Maximian, are fictions of 
later date. In the Church of St. Gerion at Cologne are many re- 
puted relics, chiefly heads, of these last. The legendary tendency to 
exaggeration in numbers seems irresistible. In commemorating the 
slaughter of the Innocents the Greek Church canonized fourteen 
thousand martyrs. Another notion, derived from Rev. xiv, 3, swelled 
the number to a hundred and forty-four thousand. The absurd story 
of the eleven thousand martyrs of Cologne is probably founded on a 
mistaken rendering of the inscription vrsvla • et • xi • mm • vv, inter- 
preted, Ursula and eleven thousand virgins, instead of eleven virgin 
martyrs. — Maitland, p. 163. A Romish legend, of course exaggerated, 
says seventy thousand Christians suffered martyrdom in the Coliseum. 

X In Rock's Hierurgia, a Romanist work, is an account of a Cata- 
comb at Nipi, near Rome, in which are said to be thirty-eight mar- 
tyr tombs, the epitaph of one of whom plainly asserts his death by de- 



108 The Catacombs of Rome. 

as these traditions, even if exaggerated, imply, seem 
incredible ; but the pages of the contemporary his- 
toiians, Eusebius and Lactantius, give too minute 
and circumstantial accounts of the persecutions of 
which they were eye-witnesses to allow us to adopt 
the complacent theory of Gibbon, that the suffer- 
ings of the Christians were comparatively few and in- 
significant. "We ourselves have seen," says the bishop 
of Caesarea, " crowds of persons, some beheaded, others 
burned alive, in a single day, so that the murderous 
weapons were blunted and broken to pieces, and the 
executioners, wearied with slaughter, were obliged to 
give over the work of blood.* . . . They constantly vied 
with each other," he continues, "in inventing new tor- 
tures, as if there were prizes offered to him who should 
contrive the greatest cruelties." f Men whose only 
crime was their religion were scourged with iron wires 
or with plumbatce, that is, chains laden with bronze balls, 
specimens of which have been found in the martyrs' 
graves, till the flesh hung in shreds, and even the bones 
were broken ; they were bound in chains of red-hot 
iron, and roasted over fires so slow that they lingered 
for hours, or even days, in their mortal agony ; their flesh 

capitation: martyrio coronatvs capite trvncatvs iacet — 
" Crowned with martyrdom, having been beheaded . . lies here." 

The beautiful terseness of the following would seem to indicate their 
genuineness : " Paulus was put to death in tortures, in order that he 
might live in eternal bliss.'' 

" dementia, tortured, dead, sleeps ; will rise." 

From the following, found on a cup attached to a tomb, it would 
seem that the martyr was first compelled to drink poison, which 
proving ineffectual, he was dispatched by the sword : " The deadly 
draught dared not present to Constans the crown, which the steel 
was permitted to offer." 

* Euseb., Hist. Eccles., viii, 9. f Ibid., viii, 12. 



Their Origin and Early History. 109 

was scraped from the very bone with ragged shells, or 
lacerated with burning pincers, iron hooks, and instru- 
ments with horrid teeth or claws, examples of which 
have been found in the Catacombs ; * molten metal and 
plates of red-hot brass were applied to the naked body- 
till it became one indistinguishable wound ; and min- 
gled salt and vinegar or unslaked lime were rubbed 
upon the quivering flesh, torn and bleeding from the 
rack or scourge — tortures more inhuman than savage 
Indian ever wreaked upon his mortal foe. Men were 
condemned by the score and hundred to labour in the 
mines, with the sinews of one leg severed, with one eye 
scooped out and the socket seared with red-hot iron. 
Chaste matrons and tender virgins were given over — 
worse fate a thousand-fold than death — to dens of shame 
and the gladiators' lust, and subjected to nameless in- 
dignities, too horrible for words to utter, f And all 
these intense sufferings were endured often with joy and 
exultation, for the love of a divine Master, when a single 
word, a grain of incense cast upon the heathen altar, 
would have released the victims from their agonies. 

* Called ungulcB, from their resemblance to the claws of a beast of 
prey. 

t See examyiles of the above named tortures in Eusebius's Hist. 
Eccles., v, 2; vi, 41; viii, 14; The Martyrs of Palestine, viii; and 
Lactantius, passim. 

On the 22d o April, 1823, says Cardinal Wiseman, a grave in the 
Catacombs was opened, and, beside the white and polished bones of a 
youth of eighteen, whose epitaph it bore, was found the skeleton of a 
boy of twelve or thirteen, charred and blackened chiefly about the up- 
per part. This was probably the remains of a youthful martyr hastily 
interred in another's grave, to come to light after the lapse of fifteen 
centuries. 

Prudentius describes the martyr Hippolytus as torn limb from limb : 

Cernere erat ruptis compagibus ordine nullo, 
Membra per incertos sparsa jacere situs. 



f io The Catacombs of Rome. 

No lapse of time, and no recoil from the idolatrous 
homage paid in after ages to the martyr's relics, should 
impair in our hearts the profound and rational reverence 
with which we bend before his tomb. 

We are left, however, for the most part, without au- 
thentic record of the tragic scenes of Christian martyr- 
dom. The primitive church, indeed, treasured up these 
memories of moral heroism as her most precious legacy 
to after times. Clement of Rome, it is said, appointed 
notaries to search out the acts of the martyrs ; * and, as 
we have seen, Fabian suffered death for his zeal in pre- 
serving these records.f But these precious documents 
for the most part perished in the Diocletian persecution, 
although fragments were probably incorporated with the 
later martyrologies. The earlier Acts are the more au- 
thentic, and the more simple in character. Those of 
later date become more and more florid in style, and are 
overladen with the incredible and impossible, till their 
historic value is entirely destroyed, except when they 
are corroborated by collateral testimony, or by the 
monumental evidence of the Catacombs. Prudentius, 
attracted to Rome by the fame of these repositories of 
the martyrs' ashes, wrote a treatise % on their sufferings, 
in which his fervid imagination and rhetorical style 
found amplest indulgence. Later writers still further 
embellished and exaggerated the original Acts, till the 
wildest stories of ancient mythology, or mediaeval le- 
gend, were surpassed by the monkish martyrologists. 

* Lib. Pontif., c. iv. These notaries were called by the Greeks 
b!jvypd([>oi or raxvypaQoi, that is, short-hand writers. Eusebius says 
they reported the extemporaneous discourses of Origen. Hist. 
Eccles., vi, 36. 

t Hie fecit sex vel septem subdiaconos, qui septem notariis immi- 
nerent ut gesta martyrum fkleliter colligerent. — Lib. Pontif. 

\ The Peristerjthanon — "Concerning the [martyrs] crowns.'' 



Their Origin and Early History. 1 1 1 

This "holy romance," as Gibbon contemptuously 
calls it, becomes little else than a record of the most 
astounding miracles, the most horrible tortures, and of 
more than human endurance.* It minutely describes 
the conflict between the Christian and his heathen 
persecutor : hinc martyr, Mine camifex — here the mar- 
tyr, there the executioner. The one wreaks his rage 
upon his victim, the other exhibits a stoical endurance 
of suffering rivaling that of the American savage at the 
funeral stake, or else an insensibility to pain that lessens 
the merit of his acts. "It is cooked, turn and eat,"f 
says St. Lawrence, broiling on a gridiron. He feels no 
pain from the vinegar and salt rubbed on his bleeding 
wounds. " Salt me the more, that I may be incorruptible," 
says Tarachus to his torturer. He continues to speak after 
his tongue is torn out by the roots. The lacerations of 
the ungulae assume to the excited imagination the form 
of the name of Christ.J Divine odours breathe from 
the body, which shines like gold amid the flames that 
refuse to kindle upon it. A voice from heaven hails the 
invincible conqueror, and his soul in the form of a 
dove ascends to the skies. § The undying instincts 

* In the thirteenth century many of the stories were collected in 
the Legenda Aurea by Jacques de Voragine, an archbishop of Ge- 
noa. After the discovery of printing the press teemed with this 
legendary literature, Flowers of the Saints, Acts of the Martyrs, etc., 
embellished with numerous engravings, representing with horrible 
minuteness the Dantean tortures on which the monkish mind loved 
to expatiate. 

■j- Assatum est : versa et manduca. 
X — Latus ungula virgineum 
Pulsat utrimque, et ad ossa secat, 
Eulalia numerante notas. 
Scriberis ecce ! mihi Domine ; 
Quam juvat hos apices legere. — Peristeph., Hymn ix. 
§ See martyrdom of Polycarp, Euseb., Hist, Eccles., iv. 15. 



1 1 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

of nature are flagrantly violated in some of the Acts 
A mother rebukes her child for begging a cup of water 
while suffering under the rods of the lictors ; and while 
it is beheaded before her eyes she, alone unmoved, sings 
a versicle of thanksgiving.* Often the martyr endeav- 
ours to exasperate with taunts and defiance the heathen 
magistrate, who gnashes his teeth and rolls his eyes in 
impotent rage.f "Be dumb, wretch! O serpent of 
darkest mind, a curse be upon thee ! " exclaims St. Boni- 
face to his executioner. Vincentius menaces his judge 
with the fiery fate of the bottomless pit. % These Acts 
of the Martyrs were appointed to be read in the 
churches, § till they were prohibited by the Council 
of Trullo, A. D. 706. 

The enthusiasm for martyrdom prevailed, at times, 
almost like an epidemic. It was one of the most remark- 
able features of the ages of persecution. Notwithstand- 
ing the terrific tortures to which they were exposed, the 
fiercer the tempest of heathen rage the higher and brighter 
burned the zeal of the Christian heroes. Age after age 
summoned the soldiers of Christ to the conflict whose 

* At sola mater hisce lamentis caret, 

Soli sereno frons renidet gaudio. — Prudent., Peristeph. 
t His persecutor saucius 
Pallet, rubescit, sestuat, 
Insana torquens lumina. 
Spumasque frendens egerit. — Ibid., Hymn ii. 
\ Bitumen et mixtum pice 
Imo implicabunt Tartaro. — Ibid. 
§ Hence called legends, a word which has in consequence come to 
signify the incredible or fictitious. Upon a mere verbal mistake was 
founded the account by the mediaeval writers of a most formidable 
weapon called the catomus, which name gave rise to the verbs catomare 
and catomizare, to express its use. It was at length discovered that 
catomus was but the Latin form of the Greek adverbial phrase /car 
<I)jio>i>, signifying, "upon the shoulders." (Maitland, p. 167.) 



Their Origin and Early History. 1 1 3 

highest guerdon was death. They bound persecution 
as a wreath about their brows, and exulted in the " glo- 
rious infamy " of suffering for their Lord. The brand 
of shame became the badge of highest honour. Besides 
the joys of heaven they won imperishable fame on 
earth; and the memory of a humble slave was often 
haloed with a glory surpassing that of a Curtius or Ho- 
ratius. The meanest hind was ennobled by the accolade 
of martyrdom to the loftiest peerage of the skies. His 
consecration of suffering was elevated to a sacrament, 
and called the baptism of fire or of blood. 

Burning to obtain the prize, the impetuous candidates 
for death often pressed with eager haste to seize the palm 
of victory and the martyr's crown. They trod with joy 
the fiery path to glory, and went as gladly to the stake 
as to a marriage feast. "Their fetters," says Euse- 
bius, "seemed like the golden ornaments of a bride."* 
They desired martyrdom more ardently than men after- 
ward sought a bishopric. \ They exulted amid their 
keenest pangs that they were counted worthy to suffer 
for their divine Master. " Let the ungulse tear us," 
exclaims Tertullian, J " the crosses bear our weight, the 
flames envelope us, the sword divide our throats, the 
wild beasts spring upon us ; the very posture of prayer 
is a preparation for every punishment." " These things," 
says St. Basil, " so far from being a terror, are rather 
a pleasure and a recreation to us. § " The tyrants were 
armed," says St. Chrysostom, " and the martyrs naked ; 

*JHist.Eccles., v, i. 

fMultique avidius turn martyria gloriosis mortibus quserebant 
quam nunc episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetunt. — Sulpio. 
Sever., Hist., lib. ii. 

%Apol., c. 30. 

§ Gregory Nazianzen. Orat. de Laud. Basil. See also the strik- 
ing language of Ignatius. (Euseb., Hist. Eccles., iii, 36.) 



1 14 The Catacombs of Rome. 

yet they that were naked got the victory, and they that 
carried arms were vanquished."* Strong in the as 
surance of immortality, they bade defiance to the 
sword. 

Though weak in body they seemed clothed with 
vicarious strength, and confident that though " counted 
as sheep for the slaughter," naught could separate them 
from the love of Christ. Wrapped in their fiery vesture 
and shroud of flame, they yet exulted in their glorious 
victory. While the leaden hail fell on the mangled 
frame, and the eyes filmed with the shadows of death, 
the spirit was enbraved by the beatific vision of the 
opening heaven, and above the roar of the mob fell 
sweetly on the inner sense the assurance of eternal life. 
" No group, indeed, of Oceanides was there to console 
the Christian Prometheus ; yet to his upturned eye 
countless angels were visible — their anthem swept sol- 
emnly to his ear — and the odours of an opening paradise 
filled the air. Though the dull ear of sense heard 
nothing, he could listen to the invisible Coryphaeus as 
he invited him to heaven and promised him an eternal 
crown." f The names of the "great army of martyrs," 
though forgotten by men, are written in the Book of 
Life. " The Lord knoweth them that are his." 

There is a record, traced on high, 
That shall endure eternally ; 
The angel standing by God's throne 
Treasures there each word and groan ; 
And not the martyr's speech alone, 



* Chrys. Horn. 74, de Martyr. 

\ Kip, p. 88 — from Maitland, p. 146. Sometimes the ardour for 
martyrdom rose into a passion, or indeed an epidemic. Eusebius says, 
{FTist. Ecrfes., viii, 6,) that in Nicomedia "Men and women with 3 
rertain divine and inexpressible alacrity rushed into the fire." 



Their Origin and Ear'y History. 1 1 5 

But every wound is there depicted, 
With every circumstance of pain — 

The crimson stream, the gash inflicted — 
And not a drop is shed in vain.* 

This spirit of martyrdom was a new principle in so- 
ciety. It had no classical counterpart.! Socrates and 
Seneca, suffered with fortitude, but not with faith. The 
loftiest pagan philosophy dwindled into insignificance 
before the sublimity of Christian hope. This looked 
beyond the shadows of time and the sordid cares 
earth to the grandeur of the Infinite and the Eternal. 
The heroic deaths of the believers exhibited a spiritual 
power mightier than the primal instincts of nature, 
the love of wife or child, or even of life itself. Like a 
solemn voice falling on the dull ear of mankind, these 
holy examples urged the inquiry, " What shall it profit 
a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul ? " And that voice awakened an echo in full many 
a heart. The martyrs made more converts by their 
deaths than in their lives. " Kill us, rack us, condemn 
us, grind us to powder," exclaims the intrepid Christian 
Apologist ; " our numbers increase in proportion as you 
mow us down." J The earth was drunk with the blood 
of the saints, but still they multiplied and grew, glori- 
ously illustrating the perennial truth — Sanguis marty- 
rum semen ecclesice.% 

* Inscripta Christo pagina immortalis est, 
Excepit adstans angelus coram Deo. 
Et quae locutus martyr, et quae pertulit : 
Nee verbum solum disserentis condidit, 
Omnis notata est sanguinis dimensio, 
Quae vis doloris, quive segmenti modus : 
Guttam cruoris ille nullam perdidit. — Peristeph. 

\ The pagans called the martyrs (3iadavaToi, or self-murderers. 

t Tertul., Apol, c. 50. 

5 As early as the middle of the second century Justin Martyr ays, 



n6 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Christianity, after long repression, became at length 
triumphant. The church on the conversion of Con- 
stantine emerged from the concealment of the Cata- 
combs to the sunshine of imperial favour. The legend 
of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus strikingly illustrates 
the wondrous transformation o r society. These Chris- 
tian brothers, taking shelter in a cave during the Decian 
persecution, awoke, according to the legend, after a 
slumber of over a century, to find Christianity eveiy- 
where dominant, and a Christian emperor on the throne 
of the Caesars.* The doctrines of Christ, like the rays 
of the sun, quickly irradiated the world. f With choirs 
and hymns, in cities and villages, in the highways and 
markets, the praises of the Almighty were sung. \ The 
enemies of God were as though they had not been. § 

" There is not a nation, Greek or Barbarian, or of any other name, 
even of those that wander in tribes or live in tents, among whom 
prayers and thanksgiving are not offered to the Father and Creator 
of the universe in the name of the crucified Jesus." The decree of 
Maximin states that almost all men had abandoned the worship of 
the gods and joined the Christian sect : S^edov airavrag avdpunovs, 
KaTaXeityOeiorfg t^c tuv deuv dpTjaKeiac, tw hOvsi tuv XpiGTiaviJv av/xfie- 
jiiXOTag. Euseb., Hist. Eccles., ix, 9. Lucianus of Antioch says that 
before the last persecution the greater part of the world, including 
whole cities, had yielded allegiance to the truth — Pars psene mundi 
jam major huic veritati adstipulatur ; urbes integrae ; etc. — Trans, 
of Euseb. by Rufinus. 

* Even the sanguine imagination of Tertullian cannot conceive the 
possibility of this event. " Sed et Csesares credidissent super Chrtsto," 
he exclaims, "si aut Csesares non essent seculo necessario, aut si el 
Christiani potuissent esse Csesares." — Apol., c. 21. 

f Old tic yteov poky. — Euseb., Hist. Eccles., ii, 3. 

% Ibid., ix, 1 ; x, 9. 

§ Ibid., x, 4. Literally, " They are no more because they never 
were." In his eloquent oration on the renovation of the cathedral 
of Tyre Eusebius applies, with remarkable elegance and propriety, 
the promises of Scripture concerning the restoration of the exiled 
Jews from Babylon and the final establishment of the church of 



Their Origin and Early History. 1 1 7 

The Lord brought up the vine of Christianity from a 
far land, and cast out the heathen, and planted and 
watered it, till it twined round the sceptre of the Csesars, 
wreathed the columns of the Capitol, and filled the 
whole land. The heathen fanes were deserted, the 
gods discrowned, and the pagan flamen no longer offered 
sacrifice to the Capitoline Jove. Rome, which had 
dragged so many conquered divinities in triumph at its 
chariot wheels, at length yielded to a mightier than all 
the gods of Olympus. The old faiths faded from the 
firmament of human thought as the stars of midnight 
at the dawn of day. The banished deities forsook their 
ancient seats. They walked no longer in the vale of 
Tempe or in the grove of Daphne.* The naiads bathed 
not in Scamander's stream nor Simois, nor the nereids 
in the waters of the bright ^Egean Sea. The nymphs 
and dryads ceased to haunt the- sylvan solitudes. The 
oreads walked no more in light on Ida's lofty top. 

O ye vain false gods of Hellas ! 
Ye are vanished evermore ! 

Long before the recognition of Christianity as the 
religion of the empire its influence had been felt per- 
meating the entire community. Amid the disintegra- 
tion of society it was the sole conservative element — 
the salt which preserved it from corruption. In the 
midst of anarchy and confusion a community was being 
organized on a principle previously unknown in the 

God (Psa. lxxx ; xcviii ; Isa. Hi ; liv) to the condition of Christianity 
in his day. The above citations are given almost in his very words. 

* A few years after the death of Constantine the Emperor Julian 
found at this celebrated shrine of Apollo, on the festival of the god, 
instead of the hecatombs of oxen and the crowds of worshippers 
which he expected, only a single goose, and a pale and solitary priest 
.n the decayed and deserted temple. — Gibbon, ii, 44S, Am. ed. 



il8 The Catacombs of Rome. 

heathen world, ruling not by terror but by love ; by 
moral power, not by physical force ; inspired by lofty 
faith amid a world of unbelief, and cultivating moral 
purity amid the reeking abominations of a sensual 
age. 

Yet this mighty energy thus at work eluded the no- 
tice, or excited only the disdain, of some of the keen- 
est observers and greatest thinkers the world has seen. 
Classical literature contains only a few short notices of 
that religion which was transforming the age. A galaxy 
of philosophers and historians, gazing mournfully at the 
seething mass of moral putrefaction around them, and 
profoundly conscious of its apparently cureless evil, 
treated as contemptible the most powerful moral agent 
in the world — that regenerative principle which was to 
reorganize society on a higher type than ever was known 
before.* The kingdom of heaven cometh not with 
observation, and paganism seemed entirely unconscious 
of its impending doom. 

But this wonderful influence, which accomplished so 
much, seemed at length strangely to lose its power, and 
did not fulfil the regenerative work which it began. It 
failed to check the degeneracy of the age or to avert 
the dissolution of the empire. The many crimes of 
that colossal orgy cried to heaven for vengeance. The 
taint was too inveterate to be eradicated ; the evil was 
immedicable ; Rome was already effete and moribund. 
It was weighed in the balance and found wanting. 
Therefore the inexorable penalty, which evermore fol- 
lows wrong, as a shadow its substance, was suffered to 
descend. An awful Nemesis, like an avenging Fate, 



* See a thoughtful essay on this topic in Froude's Short Studies < 
Great Subjects, First Series. 



Their Origin and Early History. 1 19 

overtook the great and wicked city in its pride and 
guilt ; and the mystical Babylon of the West, reeking with 
sensuality, idolatry, and blood, soon beheld the Goths 
at her gates, and the Huns within her walls.* 

* The church itself experienced many corruptions before the date 
of Constantine. Among the recent converts from paganism a crop 
of heresies sprang up. " When the sacred choir of the Apostles," 
says Hegesippus, {apud Euseb., iii, 32,) "had passed away, then the 
combinations of impious error arose by the fraud and delusion of 
false teachers." The schisms of Marcian and Novatian, Valentine 
and Montanus, early rent the Christian community. The exclusive 
ecclesiasticism of Cyprian, the episcopal assumptions of Victor, and the 
secular ambition and rapacity of Paul of Samosata, were portents 
of the spirit which afterward bore such bitter fruit. That pride and 
luxury had begun to invade the simplicity of primitive times, winch, 
when the church basked in the sunshine of imperial favour, so com- 
pletely withered its spiritual power- 



120 The Catacombs of Rome, 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DISUSE AND ABANDONMENT OF THE CATACOMBS 

From the period of the Edict of Milan, A D. 313, a new 
era opens in the history of the Catacombs. Christianity, 
emerging from those gloomy recesses where she had so 
long hidden in darkness, walked boldly in the light of 
day. She laid aside her lowly garb, put on the trap- 
pings of imperial state, and at length, unhappily, ex- 
changed her primitive simplicity for worldly power and 
splendour. But therein was her danger. The shadow 
of that power shed a upas influence over the church. 
The unhallowed union between the bride of heaven 
and a sinful world gave birth to corruption and religious 
error. Pampered when subservient to the policy of the 
Caesars, she soon became its willing instrument, and 
stained her snowy robes by complicity with imperial 
vice. Christianity became at length " a truth grown 
false," and men, to use the fine figure of D'Aubigne, for- 
saking the precious perfume of faith, bowed down before 
the empty vessel that had contained it. 

The influence of Constantine seems to have been 
fraught with more of evil than of good to the new relig- 
ion that he espoused. He appears to have adopted the 
Christian name from expediency rather than from con- 
viction, and, stained with the kindred blood of wife 
and son and nephew, ill deserves the title of Saint, be- 
stowed in fulsome adulation by a venal church. Even 
the priests of the false gods, aghast with horror at his 
crimes, exclaimed, " There is no expiation for deeds 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 12 r 

like these." He used both pagans and Christians, both 
orthodox and heretics, as instruments for his political 
purposes. His object seems to have been rather to raise 
and strengthen a hierarchy of ecclesiastical supporters 
than to assist the cause of truth ; and he imposed on 
the organization of the Greek and Latin churches that 
monarchical and secular character which they have 
ever since retained* 

The transfer of the seat of empire from the Tiber to 
the Bosphorus left Christianity to develop itself at Rome 
less trammelled by imperial influence ; and, perhaps, in a 
less corrupt form than in the East. After the edict of 
toleration, the places of worship which had been closed 
or destroyed during the persecution were opened, or 
rebuilt with a magnificence rivalling that of the ancient 
temples. But the Catacombs still continued invested 
with a deep and pathetic interest, as the cradle of the 
faith, the refuge of the church during the storm of 

* Zosimus. His profession of Christianity provoked the scorn of 
the apostate Julian. — Ibid. 

Scott compares him to a prodigal who strips an aged parent of the 
ornaments of her youth in order to decorate a flaunting paramour. But 
New Rome shared the decline of the mother city, as a graft taken 
from an old tree partakes of the decay of the parent stem. As the 
ancient liberties died out, the gorgeous but degrading despotisms of the 
East usurped their place. The emperors assumed the style and titles 
of gods. The most unmanly adulation was at length lavished on the 
slave or herdsman elevated by capricious fortune to the throne of the 
world. At the time of the princess Anna Comnena this degradation 
seems to have reached its nadir. "Your Eternity" was the blas- 
phemous epithet of the ephemeral puppet flaunting for a moment in 
the livery of infamy. " If I may speak and live," whispered with 
bated breath the titled slave — Prospathaire, or Acolyte — who stood 
nearest the throne, shading his eyes with his hands, as if overpowered 
by the effulgence of the imperial countenance. The rude Latin 
Crusaders made short work of these lofty titles and this solemn 
etiquette. 



122 The Catacombs of Rome. 

calamity, and the sepulchre of the saints and martyrs. 
Hence numerous basilicas or oratories were erected 
over or near the entrances of the ancient cemeteries in 
honour of the holy dead. 

On the full recognition of Christianity the necessity 
for subterranean sepulture ceased ; hence it fell gradu- 
ally into disuse, and was superseded by burial in or near 
the now numerous basilicas. Even the Roman bishops 
were no longer interred in the so-called Papal Crypt, 
but in churches above ground ; and this example was 
soon generally followed. " The inscriptions with con- 
sular dates," says Dr. Northcote, "probably furnish us 
with a sufficiently accurate guide to the relative pro- 
portions of the two modes of burial. From A. D. 338 
to A. D. 360 two out of three burials appear to have 
taken place in the subterranean portion of the ceme- 
teries, while from A. D. 364 to A. D. 369 the proportions 
are equal. During the next two years hardly any notices 
of burials above ground appear, but after that subter- 
ranean crypts fell rapidly into disuse."* 

It is a remarkable circumstance, here indicated, that 
in the years A. D. 370 and 371 a sudden and general re 
turn to subterranean sepulture took place. This change 
has been very satisfactorily explained by the contem- 
porary history of the Catacombs. Great injury had 
already been inflicted on these ancient sepulchres by 
the practice which had become prevalent of erecting 
basilicas, more or less sumptuous, over the tombs of the 
illustrious martyrs of the age of persecution, f As the 
ecclesiastical authorities shrank from disturbing their 

* Roma Sotterranea, pp. 95, 96. During the lifetime of Constan- 
tine subterraneous sepultures seem to have been generally prevalent. 

f These were called martyria or memories. See Euseb., Vit 
Const., iii, 48. 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 123 

remains it became the custom to excavate the gronnd 
down to the level of their graves. As these were often 
in the lower levels of the Catacombs, hundreds of graves 
were sometimes destroyed in these excavations and 
constructions.* Damasus, bishop of Rome from A. D. 
358 to A. D. 384, who was indefatigable in his efforts to 
protect and, where possible, to restore the Catacombs, 
endeavoured to prevent this wholesale destruction of 
these sacred crypts. He explored many of the galleries, 
which, to preserve* inviolate the martyrs' graves, had 
been blocked up with earth and stones during the period 
of persecution. He cleared out f and enlarged the pas- 
sages leading to the more distinguished tombs, and con- 
structed ample flights of stairs for the accommodation 
of the numerous pilgrims to these sacred shrines. He 
lined many of the chambers with marble slabs, con- 
structed shafts for the admission of light and air, and 
supported the crumbling walls and galleries, where 
necessary, with piers and arches of solid masonry. He 
also composed numerous metrical inscriptions in honour 
of the martyrs, which were engraved on marble in a 
singularly elegant character. There are few of the 
Catacombs in which traces of his restorations or adorn- 
ments are not to be found. 

The piety or superstition of the wealthy converts 
to Christianity led them to enlarge the subterranean 
chapels and martyr-tombs, and to decorate them with 

* The effects of this practice are apparent at S. Agnese fuori le 
Mura, erected over the tomb of the virgin martyr, and at San Lorenzo, 
where the galleries of the Catacomb of Cyriaca have been exposed 
and in part destroyed. 

f In extending the Catacombs for the purpose of burial it was 
sometimes found easier to cut new galleries at a higher level, using 
the bed of earth in the old as the floor of the new. Sometimes the 
new galleries cut right through the loculi of the old. 



124 The Catacombs of Rome. 

costly marbles, frescoes, mosaics, stucco ornaments, and 
vaulted roofs. The contemporary tombs and monu- 
ments were also on a scale of magnificence before 
unknown ; and the inscriptions assumed a florid and 
inflated character far different from the simplicity of 
the primitive ages. The architecture and paintings also 
indicate, with the increase of wealth and luxury, the 
decline and fatal eclipse of art. 

To the period of Damasus belongs the description, 
by Prudentius, of the shrine of Hippolytus, part of 
which has been already quoted.* " That little chapel," 
he continues, " which contains the cast-off garments 
of his soul, is bright with solid silver. Wealthy hands 
have put up glistening tablets, smooth and bright as a 
concave mirror; and, not content with overlaying the 
entrance with Parian marble, they have lavished large 
sums of money on the ornamentation of the work." It 
was during the period of the labours of Damasus that 
the revived interest in the Catacombs was so strikingly 
manifested by the sudden return to the subterranean 
mode of burial, and that many of the tombs and chapels 
received their most elaborate adornment. f 

The perversion of a natural instinct, beautiful and 
praiseworthy in itself, became the root of much evil 
in after times. Our hearts are irresistibly drawn toward 

* Chap, i, p. ii. To the same period belongs the description of the 
Catacombs by Jerome, quoted on page 36. Jerome at one time acted 
as secretary to Damasus. 

f St. Ambrose, about this time, censures the constructing of costly 
sepulchres, as if they were to be the receptacle of the soul instead of the 
body. — Frustra struunt homines pretiosa sepulchra, quasi ea animce, 
nee solius corporis, receptacula essent. — De Bono Mortis. 

Basil urges men to prepare their funeral by works of piety while 
they live. " For what need have you," he asks, " of a sumptuous 
monument, or a costly entombing?" — Horn, in Divites. 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 125 

the place where lie the remains of the dear departed 
in the last long sleep of death. Although we know 
that only the slumbering dust is there, we love to medi- 
tate above their graves, and seem there to hold closer 
communion with their spirits than elsewhere. Es- 
pecially would the early Christians be drawn to the 
tombs of their fathers in the faith, many of whom were 
also their fathers in the flesh, whose saintly patience or 
glorious martyrdom had hallowed their memory for 
evermore. They would naturally be led to adorn and 
beautify their sepulchres, and in pious devotion to med- 
itate and pray beside their honoured remains. This 
innocent, and even laudable, practice gradually, and per- 
haps inevitably, led to abuses. The admiration of the 
martyr's faith and patience and heroic spirit gradually 
intensified into superstitious veneration for his body, 
blood, bones, ashes, clothes, staff, or any personal' relic. 
Judaism regarded the touching of aught connected with 
the dead as involving a ceremonial pollution ; but Chris- 
tian ideas invested even the crumbling dust of the mar- 
tyrs with especial sanctity. 

The first clear evidence that we have of this feeling 
is in the case of Ignatius, who suffered under Trajan, 
A. D. 107. Perhaps from a fear that superstitious rev- 
erence might be paid to his remains, he prayed that the 
wild beasts might become his sepulchre, so that nothing 
of him might be left.* His desire was only partly ful- 
filled, for " the larger and harder bones remained, 
which were carried to Antioch and kept as an inesti- 
mable treasure left to the Church by the grace which was 
in the martyr." f Eusebius speaks of the charred 
remains of Polycarp as "more precious than the richest 
* Ignat., Ep. ad Rom., § iv. Euseb., Hist. Eccles., iii, 36. 
\ Acts of Martyrdom, § xii. 



126 The Catacombs of Rome. 

jewels, and more tried than gold."* The martyrs 
Dlood was esteemed a talisman of especial power. A 
sponge saturated therewith was sometimes worn as a 
sacred relic, and it may be as a supernatural amulet, 
by their friends or relatives. Prudentius describes the 
spectators of the martyrdom of St. Vincent as dipping 
their clothes in his blood, that they might keep it as a 
sort of palladium for successive generations : 

Crowds haste the linen vest to stain 
With gore distilled from martyr's vein, 
And thus a holy safeguard place 
At home, to shield the future race.f 

In the account of the death of Hippolytus, he de- 
scribes the gathering of his mangled limbs with a 
minuteness too revolting for the poetry even of martyr- 
ology. \ With a refinement of cruelty, the persecutors 
of Gaul cast the remains of the martyrs of Vienne to 
the dogs, and guarded their lifeless bodies for days, in 
order to deprive the Christians of the melancholy sat- 
isfaction of paying the last sad rites of burial to any 
fragments that remained. § 

The primitive Christians justly discriminated between 
the reverence due to the martyrs and the adoration to 
be rendered only to the Supreme Being. " We worship 
Christ as the Son of God," says the church of Smyrna, 
" but the martyrs we deservedly love as the disciples 
and imitators of Our Lord." || " We do not build tem- 

* Hist. Eccles., iv, 15. 

\ Plerique vestem linteam 
Stillante tingunt sanguine, 
Tutamen ut sacrum suis 
Domi reservent posteris. — Peristeph., v. 
\ Hie humeros, truncasque manus et brachia, et ulnas, 

Et genua, et crurum fragmina nuda legit. — Ibid., iv. 
§ Euseb., Hist. Eccles., v, 1. || Ibid., iv, 15. 



Their Disuse and Abandonment 1 2j 

pies to our martyrs as gods," says Augustine, " but only 
memorials of them as dead men whose spirits live with 
God ; nor do we erect altars or sacrifice to our martyrs, 
but to the only God, both theirs and ours."* But the 
enthusiastic feelings of the people at length failed to 
make this proper distinction, and many even of the the- 
ological writers of the day, not foreseeing the disastrous 
consequences to which the practice would lead, were 
carried away with the popular current. 

One form which this veneration took was that of fes- 
tivals in honour of the martyrs. " By a noble metaphor," 
says Milman,f " the day of their death was considered 
that of their birth to immortality." J The church of 
Smyrna celebrated the anniversary of their martyred 
bishop's passion " with joy and gladness as his natal 
day." § Tertullian asserts that the practice has the au- 
thority of apostolic tradition. | These festivals were at 
first kept with religious solemnity, accompanied by the 
celebration of the eucharist, often in the rock-hewn 
chambers of the Catacombs, where a thin tile separated 
the dead in Christ from the devout worshippers who 
commemorated the passion of their common Lord. 
During the ages of persecution this was a rite of deep 
and touching significance. Frequently his partaking of 
that feast was the recipient's own consecration to the 
martyr's death. But after the peace of the church it 
often degenerated into a scene of excess and vulgar 
revelry, more like the pagan banquets for the dead than 

* Nos martyribus nostris non templa sicut diis, sed memorias sicut 
hominibus mortuis, quorum apud Deum vivant spiritus, fabricamus ; 
nee ibi erigimus altaria, in quibus sacrificemus martyribus, sed uni 
Deo et martyrum et nostro. — De. Civ. Dei, xxii, 10. 

\ Hist, of Christianity, book iv, c. 2. 

% Hence called Natalitia, TevedXia. 

§ Eustb., Hist. Eccles., iv, 15. || De Coron. Mil., c. ii. 



128 The Catacombs of Rome. 

a Christian solemnity. Indeed, they were avowedly 
employed in ignoble appeal to the baser appetites, as 
counter-attractions to the pagan feasts, to induce the 
poor to attend the festivals of the church * This 
degradation of an originally praiseworthy practice, and 
the intensifying and abject superstition to which it led, 
provoked the taunts of the heathen and the censure of 
the more devout and thoughtful Christians. The philo- 
sophic Julian recoiled from the adoration of relics as 
from pollution. Another pagan writer contrasts the 
veneration of obscure martyrs' names, hateful to the 
gods and to men,f with the refined and poetic cultus of 
Minerva and Jupiter. J Vigilantius, the Spanish pres- 
byter, strongly condemns the " ashes worshippers and 
idolaters ; " while, on the other hand, Jerome magni- 
fies the sanctity of these relics, " around which," he 
says, " the souls of the martyrs are constantly hovering 
to hear the prayers of the supplicant." After in vain 
trying to restrain their abuses and excesses, the ecclesi- 
astical authorities were at length compelled to suppress 
these festivals. 

The reverence paid to the relics of the martyrs had two 
remarkable and contrary effects. Having led in the first 
place to the adornment of their sepulchres, it ultimately 
caused their destruction and spoliation. In consequence 
of this feeling it became an object of ambition to share 
the resting-place of those who had been so holy in life 
and so glorious in death. Hence new graves were 
often excavated in the back of the arcosolia, cutting 

* Diesque festos, post eos, quos relinquebant, alienos in honorein 
sanctorum martyrum vel non simili sacrilegio, quamvis simili luxu 
celebrantur. — Augustin., Epis. xxix. See also Boldetti, Osservazioin 
topi a i cimiteri dei SS. Martiri, p. 46. 

J Oiisque hominibusque odiosa nomina. — Aug., Epis., xvi. \ Ibid. 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 129 

through the beautiful frescoes with which they were 
adorned, and mutilating or destroying the paintings.* 
The cubicula were also defaced, their symmetry injured, 
and their construction endangered by similar imprudent 
excavations. 

Numerous inscriptions inform us that many persons 
secured this privilege during their lives, as the follow- 
ing examples : in crypta noba retro sanctos emervm 
se vivas balera et sabina (sic) — " In the new crypt be- 
hind the saints : Valeria and Sabina bought it for them- 
selves while living." EN0AAE IIATAEINA KETTAI 
M AKAPS2 EN XGPfl — " Here lies Paulina in the place 
of the blessed." Another inscription of the period of 
Damasus tells of one who was buried " within the 
thresholds of the saints, a thing which many desire and 
few obtain." f Sometimes the name of the saint or 
martyr is mentioned, as in one which records the pur- 
chase of a grave, " at the tomb of Hippolytus, above 
the arcosolium" J and another at that of Cornelius. § So 
also the tomb of Cecilia was separated from that of one 
of the primitive bishops by scarcely an inch of rock. 
Great injury was thus done to the Catacombs by the 
indiscreet devotion of those who observed this practice. 
Many pilgrims to the graves of the martyrs, deriving, 
they thought, a spiritual benefit from proximity to their 
sacred dust, took up their abode in little cells beside 
their graves while alive, and shared their sepulchres in 
death. In answer to the inquiry of his friend Paulinus 
oi Nola, whether it was a profit to the soul that the body 

* See Figs. 12 and 76. 

f " Intra limina sanctorum, quod multi cupiunt et rari ac- 
cipiunt." 

\ " At Ippolytu super arcosoliu," (sic.) 

§ ' Ad Santum Cornelium." See also the epitaph on p. 132. 
9 



130 The Catacombs of Rome. 

should be buried near the shrine of some saint,* Au- 
gustine wrote a special treatise f in justification of the 
practice ; although haiv the martyrs help men, he con- 
fesses, is a question beyond his understanding. We 
have already seen the very strong opinion entertained 
on this subject by Jerome, the contemporary of Augus- 
tine. More in accordance with reason and scripture is 
the sentiment contained in the epitaph of the arch- 
deacon Sabinus, lately found at San Lorenzo : 

NIL IVVAT IMMO GRAVAT TVMVLIS HAERERE PIORVM 

SANCTORVM MERITIS OPTIMA VITA PROPE EST 

CORPORE NON OPVS EST ANIMA TENDAMVS AD ILI.OS 

QVAE BENE SALVA POTEST CORPORE ESSE SALVS4 

It nothing helps, but rather hinders, to stick close to the tombs of 
the saints ; a good life is the best approach to their merits. Not with 
the body but with the soul must we draw nigh to them ; when that is 
well saved it may prove the salvation of the body also. 

Even Damasus, who, if any ought, might claim sepul- 
ture with the sainted dead, shrank from disturbing their 
remains, and was buried in a tomb above the Catacomb 
of Callixtus. Of the subterranean crypt he says : 

HIC FATEOR DAMASVS VOLVI MEA CONDERE MEMBRA 
SED TIMVI SANCTOS CINERES VEXARE PIORVM. 
Here I, Damasus, confess I wished to lay my limbs, but I feared 
to vex the holy ashes of the saints. 

The desire for communion with the holy dead con- 
tinued throughout successive generations. Multitudes 
of pilgrims still visited the shrines of the martyrs, and, 
after the wont of travellers, left traces of their presence 
in the numerous graffiti which are written on the walls. 
Some of these are names of classical form, as Leo, Fe- 

* " Apud sancti alicujus memoriam." 

\ De Curd pro Mortuis Gerendd, written about A. D. 421. 

% Bulhttino, 1864, 33. 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 1 3 1 

iix, Maximus, Theophilus ; others, written in less acces- 
sible places, are of later date and of foreign character, 
Spanish, British, or German, as Ildebrand, Ethelred, 
Lupo, Bonizo, Joannes. The names are frequently 
accompanied with the letters Pb., or Presb., the indica- 
tion of the ecclesiastical grade of the writer. 

Many of the loftiest dignitaries in church and state, 
popes and prelates, princes and nobles, kings and 
queens, and even some illustrious wearers of the impe- 
rial purple, continued to be brought, often from afar, 
throughout the period of the Middle Ages, to lie in 
death as near as possible to the hallowed dust of the 
early martyrs and confessors of the faith. Among them 
were some stained with blood, who hoped to expiate 
their crimes by their religious austerities, and to enter 
paradise through the intercession of the saints near 
whose remains their bones were laid. Several petty kings 
of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, some expelled by their 
subjects or rivals, others flying from the post of duty, 
muttered their prayers and counted their beads in the 
crypts of the Catacombs, and were buried in their vicin- 
ity. The following are a few of the more illustrious, 
taken from the list of the Abbe Gaume : * Popes Leo I., 
Gregory I., II., and III., Leo XL ; the Emperor Hono- 
rius and Mary his wife, Valentinian and Otho II. ; 
Cedwalla, king of the West-Saxons ; Conrad, king of the 
Mercians ; Offa and Ina, Saxon kings, with Eldiburga, 
wife of the latter ; the Empress Agnes, Queen Charlotte 
of Cyprus, and the Countess Matilda, who so enriched 
the papal see by her donations. These were buried, 
not in the Catacombs, but in the basilicas erected over 

* Les Trois Romes, torn, iv, p. 39. Aringhi gives a similar list in 
his chapter, De imperatoribus ac regibus, qui apud Vaticanum sepul- 
turse traditi sunt. — Roma Subterranea, lib. ii, c. 9. 



132 The Catacombs of Rome. 

them, which were considered to share their sanctity. 
Thus, as St. Chrysostom remarks, referring to the tradi- 
tion concerning the sepulchres of St. Peter and St. 
Paul, kings laid aside their crowns at the tombs of the 
fisherman and the tentmaker.* 

During the latter part of the fourth and the beginning 
of the fifth century the management of the Catacombs 
seems to have been no longer in the hands of the eccle- 
siastical authorities, but under the control of the fos- 
sors,f with whom the bargain for interment was made 
by the friends of the deceased. Numerous inscriptions 
occur in which this bargain is recorded, together with 
the names of the buyers and sellers, and sometimes 
those of the witnesses to the contract, and even the price 
that was paid, as in the following examples : costat 

NOS EMISSE IANVARIVM ET BRITIAM LOCVM ANTE 
DOMNA EMERITA A FOSSORIBVS BVRDONE ET MICINMO ET 

mvsco ratione avri solidvm vn semes (sic) — " It is un- 
questionable that we, Januarius and Britia, bought a 
place in front of [the tomb of] Lady Emerita J from the 
fossors Burdo, Micinus, and Muscus, for the con- 
sideration of one solidus and a half of gold " — (about 

$7.) EMPTVM LOCVM A BARTIMISTVM VISOMVM HOC EST 
ET PRETIVM DATVM A FOSSORE HILARO ID EST FOLN 
. . . PRESENTIA SEVERI FOSS. ET LAVRENT "The 

place bought by Bartimistus, that is, a bisomus ; and 
the price paid to the fossor Hilarus, 1400 folles, (about 
$5 65,) in the presence of the fossors Severus and Lau- 
rence." The fossors also probably prepared and engraved 
the funeral slabs, as seems to be implied in the follow- 

* Chrys., Quod Christus sit Deus. See legend, p. 186. 
f From fvdere, fossum, to dig. 

% Saint Emerita suffered martyrdom during the Valerian perse- 
cution. 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 133 

ing : locv marmarori {sic) qvodrtsomvm — " A quad- 
ruple tomb [bought] of the stonecutter."* 

In the following illustration from the Catacomb of 
Callixtus the fossor is seen standing in a cubiculum lined 
with graves, and surrounded by the implements of his 
labour. On his shoulder is the mattock with which he 



Fig. 23.— Diogenes the Fossor. 

dug the friable tufa, and in his hand the lamp with the 
spike by which it was fastened to the rock while he 
worked. At his feet lie the compasses for marking out 
the loculi, and over his head we read the simple epitaph, 

* Jerome strongly censures the making merchandise of the resting. 
places of the dead — Qui sepulchra venditant, et non coguntur ut ac- 
cepiant pretium, sed a nolentibus etiam extorquent. — Qucest. Heb, in 
Gen. xxiii. 



134 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



" Diogenes the fossor, buried in peace on the eighth 

before the calends of October." 

The accompanying engraving from Aringhi shows the 

fossor actively engaged in excavating the vaulted gal- 
lery by the light of the 
lamp suspended near him. 
The marks made by the 
mattocks, in the manner 
here shown, may be seen 
in the walls of the passages 
as plainly as though the 
fossor had but just ceased 
his labours. 

After a brief return to 
subterranean burial in the 
time of Damasus the prac- 
tice fell rapidly into dis- 
use, and after A. D. 410 
scarcely a single certain 
example can be found. In 
that fatal year the blast of 
the Gothic trumpet, start- 
ling the ear of midnight * 




Fig. 24— The Fossor at Work. 



in the streets of Rome, proclaimed its capture by the 
hosts of the stern Alaric. Amid the social and civil 
commotions that accompanied the breaking up of the 
empire, there was neither time nor means to adorn the 
sepulchres of the saints, and the Catacombs fell into in- 
evitable neglect and decay. Of this year not a single 
sepulchral inscription remains, a striking indication of 
the anarchy and confusion prevailing, when even the 
customary honours were not paid to the dead. 

* " Nocte Moab capta est, nocte cecidit murus ejus ! " exclaims 
Terome. — Ad Principiam. 



Their Disuse a?id Abandonment. 135 

Like a mighty deluge sweeping away and overwhelm- 
ing the art and civilization of the South, came the inva- 
sion of the barbarous hordes of the North ; yet like a 
deluge fertilizing and enriching the soil, and leaving 
germs of future fruitfulness behind. Having conquered 
the world with its arms and corrupted it with its vices, 
the mighty fabric of the Roman empire lost internal 
strength and cohesion, and began to crumble to pieces. 
The secret causes of its dissolution had long been stealth- 
ily at work, and its fall at last was utter and complete. 
Thrice in the space of three years (A. D. 408, 409, 410) 
Rome was besieged by the hosts of Alaric, and, in vain 
purchasing respite by a costly ransom, she was at last 
given up as a prey to the bold, eager, and greedy sav- 
agery of the North. The pillage of the world, accu- 
mulated during a thousand years of conquest, left, 
however, little pretext for violating the resting-places 
of the dead. As the rude soldiery gloated with hungry 
eyes on the lavish gold and silver, the precious jewels 
and sumptuous vestments on every side, they recked 
little for mere works of art, and many a porphyry vase 
and priceless statue was wantonly shivered by barbarian 
battle-axe. Nevertheless, the conqueror respected the 
basilicas of the apostles and the sacred vessels of their 
shrines, declaring that he made not war upon the 
saints.* 

But succeeding conquerors were less scrupulous or 
more rapacious. Five times in the course of the fifth 
century, and as often in the sixth, the Eternal City, 
" that was almighty named," was besieged by her im- 
placable foes. The churches were plundered of the 
massy plate and other treasures, and even the dim crypts 

* Gibbon, iii, 283. Am. Ed. 



136 The Catacombs of Rome. 

of the Catacombs echoed the clanging tread of the 
armed soldiery as with sacrilegious hands they stripped 
the shrines of the saints of their costly adorning, and 
rifled the graves of the dead in search for hidden 
treasure.* Each successive invasion to which Rome 
was exposed renewed these scenes of desecration and 
robbery. The Huns, the Goths, the Lombards, and, 
later, the Normans and Saracens, were rivals in spoliation 
and destruction. 

During the intervals of peace the Roman pontiffs en- 
deavoured to restore the Catacombs and re-adorn the 
martyr shrines, which were still the objects of pious 
veneration. They were also used during the barbarian 
invasions, as during the pagan persecutions, as places 
of refuge. Boniface I., having been for some time 
concealed in the Catacomb of Felicitas, afterwards elab- 
orately ornamented it. Symmachus and Vigilius were 
also especially diligent in their care for the Catacombs. 
The latter restored many of the Damasine epitaphs 
which had been destroyed.! We read also of popes of 

* The following lines by Pope Vigilius, A. D. 537, describe this 
event : 

Dum peritura Getse posuissent castra sub urbem, 

Moverunt Sanctis bella nefanda prius, 

Totaque sacrilego verterunt corde sepulcra, 

Martyribus quondam rite sacrata piis. 

" Whilst the Goths had placed their camp, soon to perish, before the 
city, they first waged unhallowed war against the saints, and with 
sacrilegious mind destroyed whole sepulchres once solemnly conse- 
crated to the pious martyrs." 

During the fifth and sixth centuries cemeteries were opened within 
the walls in consequence of the peril of venturing beyond the gates. 

f DIRVTA VIGILIVS NAM POSTHAEC PAPA GEMISCENS 

hostibvs expvlsis omne novavit opvs. — Inscr. in Lateran. 
" Pope Vigilius, afterwards lamenting the demolished monuments, 
renewed the entire work after the expulsion of the enemy." 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 137 

the sixth and two following centuries restoring the ceme- 
teries and making provision for the celebration of the 
martyrs' festivals at their subterranean shrines. The 
sculpture and frescoes of the period of course exhibited 
the depraved taste and debased execution of the times. 

A new element of destruction came now into play. 
This was the wholesale translation of the bodies of the 
saints from the Catacombs to the churches of the city, 
in order to save them from profanation by Astolphus 
and his sacrilegious Lombards. These pious robbers ran- 
sacked and systematically despoiled the ancient ceme- 
teries, and carried off the relics of the martyrs. Pope 
Stephen III. thereupon published a letter from St. Peter 
himself menacing with eternal damnation the violators 
of these hallowed tombs. These spiritual terrors, how- 
ever, were found insufficient to protect the sacred relics. 
The work of translation was resumed, and Pope Paul I. 
records the removal in A. D. 761 of the bodies of over 
a hundred " martyrs, confessors, and virgins of Christ, 
with hymns and spiritual songs, into the city of Rome." 
He complains also of the neglect into which the Cata- 
combs had fallen. Their deeper recesses were given 
up to owls and bats, and nearer the entrance the prowl- 
ing fox or jackal found a covert. There, too, the Cam- 
pagnian shepherds frequently folded their flocks, and 
'icon verted the sacred places into stables and dung- 
hills." They became, also, the lurking places of thieves 
and debtors, outlaws and bandits, who took refuge in 
their tangled labyrinths. 

We have observed the practice in the fourth century 
of building churches over the martyrs' tombs. The 
natural reverence for their remains soon passed into a 
superstitious veneration and belief in their miraculous 
efficacy. Even such acute minds as those of Origen, 



138 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Chrysostom, and Ambrose seem infected with this su- 
perstition.* It soon became considered essential to the 
consecration of a church that it should be hallowed by- 
some holy relics. These were placed not only on the 
altar, but in the sides of portals, to be kissed by the 
devout on entering.f The furnishing of these relics 
became a gainful trade. St. Augustine complains of 
certain vagabond monks who went about selling relics 
of the martyrs, if indeed martyrs they were.J In con- 
sequence of this practice a Theodosian law of the year 
A. D. 386 forbids the removal of any body that was 
buried, or the tearing asunder or sale of the remains of 
a martyr.§ In consequence of the number of spurious 
relics, the fourth Council of Carthage, in A. D. 401, 
prohibited the use of any whose genuineness could not 
be authenticated. | Martin of Tours narrates how he 
discovered, by summoning the ghost of a so-called mar- 
tyr, that the revered relics were only those of a common 
thief.!" The Empress Constantina wrote to Gregory 

* These Fathers quoted such passages as 2 Kings xiii, 21 ; Eccles. 
xlviii, 13, 14 ; xlix, 10-15 '» Acts v, 15, and xix, II, in proof of the 
efficacy of relics. 

f Hence in the celebration of the mass the priest kisses the altar 
and invokes pardon " by the relics of the saints that are there." — See 
Missal. Optatus tells of a lady who used to kiss the relics of he knew 
not what martyr, if martyr it were, before communion. — Ante spirit- 
ualem cibum et potum, os nescio cujus martyris, si tamen martyris. 
libare dicebatur. — Oper., lib. i. 

\ Membra martyrum, si tamen martyrum, venditant. — Aug., fa 
Oper. Monach. 

§ Humatum corpus nemo ad alium locum transferat ; nemo mar- 
tyrem distrahat, nemo mercetur. — Cod. Theod., De Sepulchris Viola- 
tis, leg. 7. 

I Omnino nulla memoria martyrum probabiliter acceptetur nisi aut 
ibi corpus, aut aliquse certe reliquse sint. — Cone. Cart/i., v, Can. 14. 

T[ Sulpitii Severi, Vita Martini, cap. viii. Julian recoiled from 
relic worship as from the stench of dead men's bones. He compared 



Their Disuse a?id Abandonment. 139 

the Great, at the end of the sixth century, for the head 
of St. Paul, in order to consecrate a new church. He 
replied that he could not divide the bodies of the saints, 
and declared that the danger of invading their tombs 
was sometimes even fatal.* But this pious reverence 
gave place to a more mercenary spirit, and the trade in 
relics became a traffic of infamy and disgrace. Not 
only were the bodies of the so-called martyrs torn asun- 
der and their limbs sold to diverse and distant places, 
but with sacrilegious fraud the relics of favourite saints 
were multiplied till as many different cities claimed to 
have their only true and genuine heads, arms, or bodies, 
as contended for the honour of being the birth-place of 
Homer.f 

These relics were endowed in popular apprehension 
with most miraculous powers. They emitted a delight- 
ful fragrance that ravished the senses. A fleshless skull 
declared the name and martyrdom of its owner. The 
bones of St. Lawrence moved in their grave to make 
room for those of another saint. The liquefaction of a 
martyr's blood may still be witnessed by the faithful on 
the anniversary of St. Januarius at Naples. X If we 
may credit numerous traditions, these wonder-working 

the churches to whited sepulchres full of rottenness and of all un- 
cleanness. 

* Greg. Max., Epis. iv. 

f At the time of the Reformation the reputed fragments of the tme 
cross, it is said, would have freighted a large ship. The relics of the 
saints were hawked about the country from house to house by ped- 
lers who farmed their sale, paying a percentage to the church or 
abbey to which they belonged. D'Aubigne's Hist. Re/., i. c. 3. 

% On one occasion the blood refused to liquefy, on account, said 
the priests, of the malign influence of the French. The French gen- 
eral sent word that unless the miracle took place within an hour his 
cannon should blow the church about their ears. The blood liquefied 
immediately. 



14° The Catacombs of Rome. 

human remains healed the sick,* raised the dead, and, 
more difficult still, converted heretics to the true faith. 
Nay, the mere contact with the brandea or handkerchief 
from the martyr's tomb, the filings of his chains, or the 
oil from the lamp before his shrine, communicated spir- 
itual as well as physical benefit. These sacred relics 
possessed a talismanic power to protect from evil. They 
were borne into battle to avert the hurtling death and 
to blunt the edge of the sword. They were affixed to 
towers as a safeguard against the thunderbolt, f They 
were inlaid in the crowns and regalia of kings, % and 
worn in rings and amulets as prophylactics against poi- 
son or disease, and they lent an awful sanctity to the 
oath taken upon the altar. § 

* The affidavit of its subject attests the miraculous cure, probably 
of hysteria or hypochondria, recently wrought by a relic from the 
Catacombs at the Hotel Dieu in Montreal, Canada. 

f A nail of the true cross, says Gregory of Tours, thrown into the 
Adriatic by Queen Radegunda, made it thenceforth one of the safest 
seas to navigate instead of one of the stormiest. — De Gloria Mar- 
tyrum. Of another, Constantine made a bit for his horse. 

X The Iron Crown of Lombardy the Roman Congregation of 
Relics has declared to be a sacred talisman, being made of a nail of 
the Crucifixion, although the first authentic mention of it occurs in the 
midnight of the dark ages, A. D. 888. From the time of Charles V. 
no sovereign ventured to wear this sacred crown till Napoleon, seek- 
ing to consecrate his usurped authority, with his own hand placed it 
on his head at Milan, A. D. 1805, with the vaunting words, " God 
hath given it me ; let him take heed who touches it." — Dieu me Fa 
donnee ; gare a qui la louche. It was carried off from the cathedra] 
of Monza by the Austrians in 1859. 

§ On marble tablets in the Church of St. Prassede, in Rome, is an 
enumeration of its precious treasures, among which are a tooth of St. 
Peter and one of St. Paul, part of the chemise of the Virgin Mary — 
de camisia beatce Maries Virginis, part of Christ's girdle — de cingulo 
D. N. yesu Christi, part of Moses' rod, some of the earth on which 
Christ prayed, also of the reed and sponge, three spines of the crown 
of thorns, part of the towel with which he washed his disciples' feet 



Their Disuse and A bandonment. 1 4 1 

The slender historical evidence on which idolatrous 
homage is paid to these relics is seen in the case of the 

pait of the swaddling clothes — -pannis — in which he was wrapped at 
his nativity, and part of the seamless robe — de veste inconsutili. 
The whole of this robe was formerly exhibited at Treves, where the 
deluded votaries of this Christian idolatry invoked its intercession in 
the formula, " Holy Coat, pray for us ! " In the year 1854, in the of- 
ficial " Gazette of Vienna," it was announced that the tooth of St. 
Peter, given by Pius IX. to the Emperor of Austria, would be for 
four days exposed to the sight and homage of the faithful. Before 
the Reformation these relics were still more puerile and absurd, and 
calculated to provoke a smile or sneer as the humourist or the cynic pre- 
dominated in the observer. At the Church of All Saints at Wittem- 
berg, says D'Aubigne, were shown a fragment of Noah's ark, some soot 
from the furnace of the Three Hebrew Children, and nineteen thousand 
other relics. At Schaffhausen was exhibited the breath of St. Joseph 
that Nicodemus had received in his glove. At Wurtemberg might 
be seen a feather plucked from the wing of the archangel Michael. 
(Hist. Re/., i, c. 3.) Heywood, in his interlude of " The Four 
P's," one of whom was a Pardoner, among his " relykes," enumerates 
" Of All-hallowes (that is, All-Saints) the blessed jaw-bone," the 
great toe of the Trinity, and others in which is a still stranger mix- 
ture of absurdity and blasphemy. (See " Inquiry into the Origin of 
the Reformation," by the present writer, in Evangel. Repos., London, 
Eng., Feb., 1865.) Augustine says the dung-heap on which Job sat 
was still visited in his day ! In St. Peter's at Rome is exhibited a 
coin said to be one of the thirty pieces of gold (?) for which Judas 
betrayed his Master. They were made, according to the legend, by 
Terah, Abraham's father, who was a famous artificer under King 
Nimrod. They were the price of the field of Ephron, and also the 
coins with which Joseph was bought, and with which his brethren 
purchased corn in Egypt. Despite the anachronism, Moses is said to 
have given them as a dowry to the Queen of Sheba, who presented 
them to Solomon. Nebuchadnezzar, it is alleged, carried them away, 
and the Magi brought them back as an offering to Christ. Finally" 
Mary cast them into the treasury of the Temple, whence the priests 
gave them to Judas for his perfidy. (See Bingham, xiv, 4, § 18.) 

The stone upon which the sovereigns of England are crowned is, 
according to a venerable tradition, that which formed Jacob's pillow 
at Bethel. 

In the cathedral of Genoa is deposited the wonderful cup known 



142 The Catacombs of Rome. 

so-called " Saint Theodosia of Amiens." Her epitaph, 
found in a Catacomb near the Salarian Way, reads as 
follows : 

AVRELIAE THEVDOSIAE 

BENIGNISSIMAE ET 

INCOMPARABILI FEMINAE 

AVRELIVS OPTATVS 

CONIVGI INNOCENTISSIMAE 

NAT • AMBIANA. 

Aurelius Optatus to his most innocent wife Aurelia Theudosia, a 
most gracious and incomparable woman, by nation an Ambian. 

The Congregation of Relics decided that Theudosia 
was both a saint and martyr, and a native of Amiens. 
Her remains were solemnly conveyed to that city, and 
on the 12th of October, 1833, they were received with 
the utmost magnificence by no less than twenty-eight 
mitred prelates and fifteen hundred other ecclesiastics, 
placed in a gorgeous shrine, and honoured as in ancient 
times they honoured a tutelar goddess. Cardinal Wise- 
man preached on the occasion, and compared the re- 
moval of her remains to her native place to that of the 
patriarch Joseph's bones from Egypt to Canaan ; and 
Bishop Salinis commended the homage of her relics 

in history as the Holy Grail, which in times of yore was the object of 
so many knightly quests, and more recently the subject of so many 
stately epics. It was a vessel composed of a single emerald origin- 
ally, (so runs the legend,) the marvellous cup wherewith Joseph di- 
vined — the cup put into the mouth of Benjamin's sack. It was also 
the mystical cup of wisdom of Solomon, and, at length, that out of 
which Christ partook of the Last Supper. Hence its name, San 
Greal, that is, sanguis realis, the real blood. Joseph of Arimathea 
brought it to Britain, but it mysteriously disappeared in consequence 
of the laxness of the times. How it came to Genoa does not clearly ap- 
pear. From the time of Wolfram von Eschenbach, a minnesinger of 
the thirteenth centuiy, down to Tennyson and Lowell, this has been 
a favourite subject of poetry. See an article on the legend, by the 
writer, in Harper's Weekly, Feb. 5, 1870. 



Their Disuse and A bandonment. 1 4 3 

'* because the martyrs are, after Jesus Christ, also 
Christs to open heaven to mankind." * 

By this practice of the translation of relics Rome 
broke the chain of positive evidence, and destroyed the 
tender and pathetic associations connected with the re- 
mains of the sainted dead. The martyr's tomb, in its 
original position and undisturbed, is an object of in- 
tensest interest ; but removed to some distant church 
or abbey and redecorated with florid adornment or 
theatrical finery, his alleged relics provoke only skep- 
ticism or contempt. Indeed, so little attempt at proba- 
bility is there in the names given to these relics that a 
Romanist writer, the Abbe Barbier de Montault, con- 
fesses that the greater part of the bodies found in 
the Catacombs wanting proper names have received, 

* As recently as the year 1870 the alleged relics of a newly discov- 
ered St. Aureliana, a virgin martyr of the third century, who is sup- 
posed to have been a member of the family of the Roman emperor 
Aurelian, were transferred, with many religious ceremonies, from the 
Catacombs to Cincinnati, in the United States. In the Roman 
Catholic cathedral at Buffalo, N. Y., is a slab from the Catacombs 
with the inscription, DP-PEREGRINVS XII KAL-MARTIAS 
Q-VIXIT-M- — "Peregrinus, buried the twelfth day before the 
calends of March, who lived . . months." He was, therefore, an in- 
fant ; yet he is claimed to be a martyr, and a wax figure of an adult 
man with gaping wounds exhibits the alleged mode of his death. At 
its feet is placed what is said to be a phial of the martyr's blood. In the 
same church are also what is described as " a large piece of the true 
cross on which trickled the sacred blood of Christ," and " particles 
of the bones of Saints Peter and Paul and of many other holy martyrs." 

Maitland quotes an account from Mabillon of the reverence paid to 
:i certain St. Viar, founded on the discovery of a stone bearing the 
letters S • VIAR. This was, however, found to be a fragment of the 
inscription PRAEFECTVs -VIAR VM-" Curator of the Ways." 
There is absolutely no warrant whatever for such assumptions as these. 
There is not in the whole range of Christian epigraphy a single con- 
temporary inscription of unquestioned genuineness which can lead to 
the identification of the remains, name, and date of a primitive martyr. 



144 The Catacombs of Rome. 

when they were exposed to public veneration, names at 
haphazard, which have only a vague or general signifi- 
cation, as Felix, Fortunatus, Victor.* 

We return from this digression to the mediaeval his 
tory of the Catacombs. The efforts of Stephen III., 
Adrian I., and Leo III., in the eighth and ninth cen- 
turies, to restore their ancient honour and magnifi- 
cence, were unavailing. The tombs of the saints were 
continually being abandoned and destroyed. The 
translation of the sacred relics was renewed with in- 
creased energy. Pope Paschal I. was the most zealous 
agent in the prosecution of this work. An inscrip- 
tion in the church of St. Prassede, which he built for 
their reception, records the translation thither of 2,300 
bodies in a single day, July 20, A. D. 817. Successive 
popes continued to remove cartloads of relics from the 
Catacombs in order to enhance the dignity'or sanctity 
of the churches which they built or restored, and as an 
evidence of their own pious zeal. At this period, prob- 
ably, the multitude of relics were borne to the Pantheon, 
since known as St. Maria ad Martyres — 

Shrine of all saints and temple of all gods 
From Jove to Jesus.f 

* Le plupart des corps saints trouves dans les Catacombes man- 
quant de noms propre, ont recu lorsqu'on les exposes a la veneration 
publique, des noms de circonstance, qui n'ont qu'une signification 
vague ; comme Felix, Fortunatus, Victor.— A nnee Liturgique & 
Rome, p. 151. 

f Childe Harold. Boniface IV. is said to have previously trans- 
ferred twenty-eight cartloads Of relics from the Catacombs to (his 
place. He thus, as we read in barbaric verse on his epitaph in the 
crypt of St. Peter's, purified the shrine of all the demons, and dedi- 
cated it to all the saints : 

" — Templa . . 
Delubra cunctorum fuerant quae demonorum (sic) 
Hie expurgavit Sanctis cunctisque dicavit." 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 1 45 

These perpetual spoliations of the Christian ceme- 
teries led to the rapid destruction of many of their gal- 
leries and chambers, and to their final abandonment 
like a worked-out mine — a mine, too, which had been 
the source of greater riches to the church than treas- 
ures of silver or gold. In the removal of the relics of 
the martyrs the principal motive for the protection or 
adornment of the Catacombs was taken away, and dur- 
ing the gathering darkness of the Middle Ages they 
speedily passed out of the knowledge of mankind. In 
a few of those in the immediate vicinity of some church 
or monastery a subterranean chapel was still kept open, 
and an occasional mass was celebrated on the presumed 
anniversary of the martyr whose name was associated, 
often erroneously, therewith ; or some zealous and ad- 
venturous pilgrim might even penetrate their obscure 
recesses. But a blight had fallen on the once beautiful 
Campagna. Desolation, pestilence, and death brooded 
over the deserted plain. Through the natural dilap- 
idations of time, and the spoliations of Saracens, Nor- 
mans, and Greeks, who successively invaded Italy and 
waste'd the country with fire and sword, the basilicas 
and oratories of the Byzantine period crumbled to de- 
cay or were destroyed, and the monasteries were de- 
serted ; their cowled and sandaled occupants, long the 
sole custodians of the Catacombs, taking refuge within 
the city walls. The rains of a thousand autumns and 
the frosts of as many winters caused the crumbling of 
the luminari, the falling in of the roofs, and ruin of the 
galleries. The knowledge of the past was lost in the 
gathering gloom of the dark ages, so that in an enumer- 
ation of the Roman Catacombs in the fourteenth cen- 
tury only three are mentioned, and these were connected 
10 



14.6 The Catacombs of Rome. 

with some church. In the fifteenth century but one, 
that of Sebastian, was known. 

Yet there is evidence that some of the galleries were 
accessible, and were used for dark and sinister purposes, 
in keeping with their gloomy and desolate character. 
During the lawless period from the eleventh to the fif- 
teenth century, when faction and civil war and anarchy 
laid waste the country, and even the classic mausolea 
above ground were converted into armed fortresses, 
these gloomy vaults became the rendezvous of insur- 
gents and conspirators, who feared no betrayal of their 
bloody secrets by the silent sleepers in their narrow 
cells. In their dark recesses were concocted those 
" treasons, stratagems, and spoils " that desolated the 
land. Frequently armed bands of the retainers of hos- 
tile houses — the Montagues and Capulets of the day — 
met in these subterranean battle-grounds, and the war- 
cry of Guelph and Ghibelline, of Colonna and Orsini, 
rang through the hollow corridors, disturbing the quiet 
of the graves. Bloodshed and cruelty often desecrated 
the spot sacred to religion and the ashes of the sainted 
dead. Petrarch thus describes these unhallowed uses 
of the Catacombs : 

They are become like robbers' caves, 
So that only the good are denied entrance ; 
And among altars and saintly statues 
Every cruel enterprise is planned.* 

During the period of the " Babylonish Captivity," when 
the Papal See was removed from the banks of the Tiber 

* Quasi spelunca di ladron son fatti, 

Tal ch' a buon solamente uscio si chiude ; 
E tra le altari, e tra statue ignude, 
Ogni impressa crudel par che si tratti. 

Canzone xi. 



Their Disuse and A bandonment. 1 47 

to those of the Rhone — from the protection of the for- 
tress of St. Angelo to the castled heights of Avignon — 
the decay of every thing pertaining to the church in 
Italy was precipitated. The city of Rome, which de- 
pended for its prosperity entirely upon its ecclesiastical 
pomps and pageants, became impoverished and almost 
deserted. The Campagna changed to a wilderness, and 
the entrances to the Catacombs were choked with rub- 
bish or overgrown with tangled thickets and gigantic 
weeds. Many of these entrances were also walled up by 
the civic authorities to prevent their becoming the re- 
sort of robbers, and for the safety of the inhabitants. 

During the short and tumultuous career of that strange 
reformer, Colonna di Rienzi, (1347-1354,) some of the 
hidden crypts are mentioned as the scene of the plots 
and counterplots of that troublous time ; and, like the sew- 
ers and Catacombs of Paris during the Revolution, and 
the cloacae of Rome in time of proscription and civil war, 
they became places of refuge and concealment. On the 
eve of his massacre Rienzi was urged to seek safety in 
those ancient sanctuaries of the persecuted church, but 
he replied, as Nero is said to have done thirteen centu- 
ries before, that he would not bury himself alive.* 

With the exception of these rare allusions there is 
little mention of the Catacombs in the chronicles of the 
Middle Ages, and they became in course of time virtually 
unknown. They were not, however, entirely unvisited. 
The cemetery of Sebastian was never quite forgotten, 
but was always open to pilgrims ; and even in the 

* This ancient use of the Catacombs has not been forgotten in 
modern times. That intrepid pontiff, Pius VII., rather than yield to 
the demands of the first Napoleon, threatened to retire to those 
gloomy recesses which had sheltered so many of the primitive 
bishops. 



148 The Catacombs of Rome. 

darkest period there seem to have been some who, in- 
spired by devotion or curiosity, penetrated the most 
accessible crypts, and left inscribed upon the walls the 
date of their visit. Thus, in one place we find a record 
of a bishop of Pisa and his companions who visited the 
Catacombs early in the fourteenth century. Another 
graffito, with the names of three persons and the date 
A. D. 1321, reads thus : " Gather together, O Christians, 
in these caverns, to read the holy books, to sing hymns 
in honour of the saints and martyrs who, having died in 
the Lord, lie buried here ; to sing psalms for those who 
are now dying in the faith. There is light in this dark- 
ness. There is music in these tombs."* 

On one of the graves were found a small silver-gilt 
coronet, with the date A. D. 1340, and a palm leaf 
worked in silver. In another crypt are written six 
names — German, in Latinized form — with a cross after 
each, and beneath, the date A. D. 1397. f They were 
probably a company of German priests on a pilgrimage 
to the Eternal City and its sacred shrines. In two or 
three cubicula in the Catacomb of Callixtus are graffiti 
recording the visits of certain Franciscan friars in the 
fifteenth century. -Brother Lawrence of Sicily, over 
date January 17, 145 1, records that with twenty others 
he had come to visit the holy place. J In 1467 some 
Scottish pilgrims,§ and two years after an abbot of 
St. Sebastian, with a large party, || left records of their 
visits to this Catacomb. The names of Pomponio Leto 
and other literati of the Roman Academy have also 
been found in several of the crypts. These men, how- 

* MacFarlane, p. 36. f Ibid., 49, 50. 

% " Fuit hie ad visitandum sanctum locum istum." 
§ " Quidem Scoti hie fuerunt." 
]| " Cum magna, cometiva,." 



Their Disuse and Abandonment. 149 

ever, although the avowed lovers of antiquity,* were 
enthusiastic only in the pursuit of heathen learning, and 
justly merited the reproach of being more pagan than 
Christian. With the exception of such infrequent and 
transient visits, it would appear that this priceless treas- 
ury of Christian archaeology and legacy of the primitive 
church to the present age was completely forgotten till 
it was revealed to the eyes of a wondering world by the 
explorations of the sixteenth and following century. 

* " Unanimes antiquitatis amatores." 



1 50 The Catacombs if Rome, 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE REDISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE 
CATACOMBS. 

It would seem that the rediscovery of the Catacombs 
was providentially reserved to a period especially adapted 
for their profitable study. In the fullness of time, when 
the great Reformation was emancipating the minds of 
men from the trammels of superstition, and long-vener- 
ated beliefs and usages were being compared with the 
still older primitive faith and practice, this marvellous 
testimony of the purity, simplicity, and piety of the 
.early church was unveiled. These Christian evidences, 
which have no parallel save in the sacred scriptures 
themselves, after having been sealed up during the dark 
ages of ignorance and superstition, were brought to light 
in a period of intellectual quickening and revived clas- 
sical learning, which stimulated the minds of men to 
the study of the past and to the rescue from oblivion of 
the priceless remains of antiquity. The newly-invented 
printing-press and the engraver's burin preserved the 
record of much that has since perished ; and Roman 
archaeologists, seeking in the monuments of antiquity 
for corroboration of papal doctrine and practice, 
brought to light the disproof of their existence in the 
early ages of the church. A rejection of this testimony 
would invalidate all monumental evidence, whether sa- 
cred or secular, concerning the past. 

The rediscovery of this subterranean city took place 



Their Rediscovery and Exploration. 1 5 1 

in the year 1578. Some labourers digging pozzolana in 
a vineyard on the Salarian Way came suddenly upon an 
ancient cemetery,* with its paintings, inscriptions, sar- 
cophagi, and graves. The event produced a profound 
sensation in Rome. The city was amazed, says Baro- 
nius, who himself examined and described the newly- 
discovered Catacomb, at finding beneath her suburbs 
long-concealed Christian colonies, f These ancient 
shrines became again favourite places of devotion. Here, 
among others, St. Charles Borromeo and St. Philip Neri 
S£ent whole nights in prayer. 

The earliest systematic explorers of the Catacombs 
were Alfonso Ciacconio, a Spanish priest, and Philip de 
Winghe and Jean l'Heureux, \ two Flemish laymen. 
The voluminous MSS. and drawings of the two former, 
however, were never published, and they lie buried in 
those vast cemeteries of literature, the libraries of Rome, 
Naples, Brussels, and Paris. The valuable MS. of 
l'Heureux, the result of twenty years' labour, although 
ready for publication, and even licensed for printing, in 
1605, remained unprinted for two centuries and a half 
when it was given to the public by Padre Garrucci under 
the appropriate title of Hagioglypta.% Such a length- 
ened period between licensing and publication is prob- 
ably unparalleled in literary history. 

* The Catacomb of St. Priscilla. 

f Ipsamet urbs obstupuit, cum abditas in suis suburbiis se novit 
habere civitatis Christianorum colonias. — Ann. Eccl., ann. 130. It is 
singular that in the very year of their rediscovery Onophrius Pavin- 
ius, an Augustinian friar, published an account of the Christian 
cemeteries entirely from the ancient documents of the church. Only 
three of them were then accessible, those of Sebastian, Lawrence, and 
Valentine. 

\ Grecised into Joannes Macarius. 

§ Paris, 1856. 



1 52 The Catacombs of Rome. 

To Antonio Bosio, a native of Malta and an advocate 
by profession, belongs the honour of first unveiling to 
the astonished gaze of Europe the wonders of this vast 
city of the dead. He has well been called the Colum- 
bus of this subterranean world. Inspired and sustained 
by a lofty enthusiasm, he spent six and thirty yeais 
groping among those gloomy corridors, deciphering the 
half-effaced inscriptions, and making drawings of the 
remains of early Christian art. So habituated did he 
become to this troglodytic existence that the Cim- 
merian gloom of the Catacombs was more grateful 
to his eyes than the light of day, which dazzled and 
almost blinded him. His labours were prodigious, and 
often botli severe and perilous. He had frequently 
to force a passage with his own hands through the ac- 
cumulated rubbish of centuries, and was constantly in 
danger, in the zeal of exploration, of being lost in the 
windings of the galleries, from which danger he had 
some narrow escapes. In his great work he describes 
himself as rushing along with breathless haste, the de- 
sire with which he burned adding wings to his weary feet. 
Again he is creeping serpent-wise through the low and 
crumbling passages, consoling himself for the difficulty 
and discomfort by the thought that this lowly attitude be- 
fitted the humble and reverent spirit in which a place con- 
secrated by such memories ought to be approached. But 
he was rewarded for all his toil by the discovery of " pic- 
tures bright with the colours of yesterday, and characters 
still sharp and angular from the primeval graving tool." 

The elder D'Israeli has cited Bosio as an illustrious 
example of the enthusiasm of genius. " Taking with 
him a hermit's meal for the week," he remarks, " this 
new Pliny often descended into the bowels of the earth 
by lamp-light, clearing away the sand and ruins till 



Their Rediscovery and Exploration. 1 5 3 

some tomb broke forth or some inscription became 
legible, tracing the mouldering sculpture and catching 
the fading picture. Thrown back into the primitive 
ages of Christianity amidst the local impressions, the 
historian of the Christian Catacombs collected the me- 
morials of an age and of a race which were hidden be- 
neath the earth."* 

The literary industry of this pioneer explorer was 
immense. He carefully examined all the Latin, Greek, 
and Oriental Fathers ; all the ecclesiastical records, 
canons, and decrees of councils ; the lives of the saints, 
the acts of the martyrs — everything, in fact, which could 
illustrate the history of the Catacombs and of the early 
church. The result of these labours is seen in the bulky 
MS. volumes, of many thousand pages, written with his 
own hand, which are still extant in the Oratorian Li- 
brary at Rome. He was not permitted to see the pub- 
lication of his great work, in which was disclosed to the 
world the wonderful terra incognita lying so long hidden 
beneath the busy life of the Eternal City, but died while 
writing the last chapter. It was too valuable a contri- 
bution to Christian archaeology, however, to remain un- 
published, and it was given to the world, under the ap- 
propriate title of " Subterranean Rome," f in the year 
1632, or five years after its author's death. 

This book contains an admirable topographical ac- 
count of each cemetery which he had explored, taking 
in order the great consular roads leading from the city. 
Bosio's attempted identification of the cemeteries and 

* Essay on the Literary Character. Eng. ed., p. 144. 

\ Roma Sotteranea, opera poshima di Antonio Bosio composta 
disposta ed accresciuta da Giovanni di Severano, Sacerdote delta Con- 
gregazione del? Oratorio. Roma, 1632. 

MacFarlane and Kip are in error as to the period of Bosio's labours, 
antedating them about thirty yenrs. 



154 The Catacombs of Rome. 

principal tombs and shrines described in the ancient 
ecclesiastical records is not always sufficiently accurate. 
He is rather uncritical and confused in his arrangement, 
although honest and, in matters of personal observation, 
exact. His work is of great value as giving an accouiti 
of many crypts and monuments, and copies of many 
paintings which have perished through the decay or 
vandalism of the last two hundred years, or whose posi- 
tion has been forgotten. Among these is the Jewish 
Cemetery before mentioned, of which no evidence is 
extant save Bosio's description. His name, written in 
his own peculiarly bold style, is met with in many of the 
newly opened galleries of the Catacombs, showing that he 
had previously explored those parts since filled with 
earth. 

Many objects of priceless value have been lost since 
Bosio's day by the desultory and unsystematic excava- 
tions of private and independent explorers. These 
were conducted, not upon a system of enlightened 
archaeological research, but upon mere caprice ; and 
were guided too often by a superstitious zeal for the 
identification and translation of the relics of the saints, 
or by the more sordid motive of trafficking in their re- 
mains, or of pillaging the gold and silver with which 
some of the more illustrious shrines were still adorned. 
In this quest many paintings, sculptures, and inscriptions 
were destroyed or defaced of which no record has been 
preserved. After the year 1688 the excavations weie 
pursued under pontifical supervision, though often ne- 
glected through indifference or embarrassed by want of 
funds. 

In 1 65 1 a Latin translation of Bosio's great work* 

* Roma Subterranea novissima post Ant. Bosium et Joan. Seve- 

ranum. Romoe, 165 1. Two vols. fol. It is sa ; d that there are only 



Their Rediscovery and ^Exploration. 155 

was published by Padre Aringhi, a learned Oratorian 
priest, who added numerous important discoveries of his 
own. This book has been largely consulted in the 
preparation of these pages, collated, of course, with 
more recent and more accurate explorers. 

The Catacombs were now frequently visited by trav- 
ellers, who have left a record of their impressions in 
their published works. Among these were two distin- 
guished Englishmen, John Evelyn and Bishop Burnet. 
The sturdy Protestantism of the latter, rejecting the 
unwarranted inferences drawn by the Roman archaeolo- 
gists from this testimony of the primitive ages, was be- 
trayed into an unjust skepticism as to the character of 
that testimony. He does not scruple to affirm that 
" those burying places that are graced with the pompous 
title of Catacombs are no other than the puticoli men- 
tioned by Festus Pompeius, where the meanest sort of 
the Roman slaves were laid," and that they did not 
come into the possession of the Christians till the fourth 
or fifth century.* A more careful or more candid ex- 
amination of those early evidences of Christianity would 
have shown him the error of this statement, in which 
he has been followed by Misson, a French Protestant, 
and by some other writers. 

In 1 68 1 Bertoli published an interesting work on the 
sepulchral lamps of the Catacombs f with numerous il- 
lustrations ; but a more valuable contribution to the 
literature of this subject was a collection of Christian 

two copies of this work in America. Aringhi's version, being in 
Latin, is better known out of Italy than the Italian treatises of Bosio, 
Boldetti, or Bottari. 

* " Letters from Italy in 1685 and 1686." Rotterdam. Pp. 209. 

f Li antichi lucerni sepolcrali figurante raccolte dale cave softer- 
ranca e grotte di Roma. Roma, 1681. 



156 The Cdtaumbs of Rome. 

epitaphs * by Raphael Fabretti, for many years custodian 
of these sacrod crypts, who prevented the wholesale de- 
struction of the inscriptions by their careless removal. 
The learned Benedictine, Mabillon, personally examined 
the evidences of the Catacombs, and wrote a treatise 
concerning the reverence of the unknown saints.f This 
led to the publication, under the patronage of Clem- 
ent XI., of a theological and apologetic, rather than 
scientific, treatise on the cemeteries of the holy martyrs 
and early Christians of Rome, J by Marc Antonio Bol- 
detti, the successor, for thirty years, of Fabretti, as cus- 
iode of the Catacombs. But in his case, as in that of 
several other Roman archaeologists, theological zeal was 
allied with antiquarian enthusiasm, and sometimes im- 
paired or destroyed the value of his researches. 

Gruter's vast collection of ancient inscriptions,! pub- 
lished early in .the century, and more especially that 
of Muratori, | were valuable contributions to Chris- 
tian epigraphy. The learned Jesuit, Marangoni, pre- 
pared the material of a systematic work on the topo- 
graphical principle of Bosio, when the labour of nearly a 
score of years was destroyed by fire. " It seems," says 
De Rossi, recording the event, " that the literary history 
of the Catacombs is but an Iliad of disaster and irrep- 
arable losses." 

The next name of distinction that we meet in connec- 
tion with this subject is that of Bottari, equally versed 
in profane and sacred antiquities. His great work on 

* Inscriptionum antiquarum qum in cedibus paternis asservantur 
etc. Romse, 1702. 

\ De Cultu Sanctorum Ignotorum. 

\ Osservazioni sopra i cemeteri dei SS. Martiri ed antic hi cristiani 
di Roma. Roma, 1720. 

§ Insaiptiones Antique. Amstelodami, 1707. 

j Novus Thesaurus Veterum Inset iptionum. Mediolani, 1739. 



Their Rediscovery and Exploration. 1 5 7 

the sculpture and paintings of the Catacombs* was is- 
sued from the Vatican press, under the patronage of 
Clement XII., during the years 1 737-1 754. Other ar 
chaeologists, among whom we may enumerate Buonar- 
rotti, Mamachi, f Marini, Lupi, Zaccaria, % Danzetta, § 
Olivieri, Borgia, and others, illustrated the subject in vari- 
ous works during the eighteenth century. The establish- 
ment of the Christian Museum in the Vatican by Bene- 
dict XIV. greatly facilitated the study of these antiqui- 
ties. The taste for archaeological research, however, 
even among ecclesiastics, was principally confined to the 
remains of pagan antiquity ; and amid the many mu- 
seums of Rome only one was devoted to the Christian 
monuments of the primitive ages, of which such vast 
treasures lay buried in the earth. 

During the present century important contributions 
have been made to the literature of the Catacombs by 
DAgincourtJ Rostell,! Raoul-Rochette,** the Abbes 

* Sculture e Pitture Sacre estratte dai Cimeteri di Roma. Roma. 

f His Originum ct Antiquitatum Christianorum, Roma, 1749-51, 
treats especially on the sarcophagi of the Catacombs. 

\ This celebrated Jesuit projected a work " On the Use of Ancient 
Christian Inscriptions in Theology." See Migne, Cursus Computus 
T/ieolog., vol. v, pp. 309, etc. 

§ Danzetta continued Zaccaria's plan. His work, which he called 
Theologia Lapidaria, left unfinished, was undertaken by Geatano 
Marini, who spent many years collecting materials to embrace the 
first ten centuries. He was interrupted by the French Revolution, 
and his thirty-one volumes of MS. in the Vatican are an unfinished 
monument of his learning and industry. 

I In LHistoire de L'Art par Us Monumens. Six vols. fol. Paris. 
D'Agincourt came to Rome intending to spend six months in the 
study of this subject, but its fascination so grew upon him that it occu- 
pied the remaining fifty years of his life. 

T In Bunsen's Beschreibung der Stadt Rom. Stuttgard, 1830. 

** Memoire surles antiquites Chretiennes des Catacombes. {Mem. de 
VAcad. des Inscr.. XIII.) See also Tableau des Cataiombes. 



158 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Gaume * and Gerbet,f Bishop Munter,J Cardinal Mai,§ 
and especially Padres Marchi | and Garrucci. 

Cardinal Wiseman, in his beautiful tale of Fabiola,^ - 
attempts to rehabilitate the primitive ages in the garb 
of modern Romanism. He brings together from widely 
different periods the legends and traditions, often based 
on very scanty evidence, which are most favourable to 
the claims of ultramontanism, and thus completely de- 
stroys the historic value of the work, rendering it in 
essence, as it is in form, a mere romance. 

The most magnificent contribution to the literature 
of the Catacombs, at least in point of artistic excellence 
and costliness, is the superb work of M. Perret,** in six 
huge folio volumes, with some five hundred coloured 
drawings, two thirds of which were never before copied, 
and as many facsimile inscriptions. It was prepared 
under the direction of the French Academy of Inscrip- 
tions, and by a vote of the Legislative Assembly of the 
French Republic of 185 1 a grant of one hundred and 
eighty thousand francs was given to defray the cost. No 

* In Les Trots Romes. 

\ Esquisse de Rome Chritienne. 

\ Sinnbilder und Kunstvorstellungender Alien Christen. Altona. 

§ Veterum Scriptorum Nova Collectio. Roma, 1831. 

I Monumenti delle Arti Cristiane Primitive nella Metropoli del 
Qistianesimo. Roma, 1844. The political troubles of the year 
1S48 prevented its completion. The theological zeal of this writer, 
however, has in many cases biassed his judgment. " In every page 
of his work," says a critic in the Edinburgh Review, (January, 1S59, 
Am. ed, ccxxi, p. 48,) " an exuberant desire to find evidence in sup- 
port of the later Romish doctrine among these records of the primi- 
tive church predominates over every other consideration." 

If London, 1857. 

** Les Catacombes de Rome, par Louis Perret. Six vols., fol. Paris, 
1852-57. This book costs in the United States $600. Only three 
copies are known to be in America. One of these is a gift from the 
iate emperor of the French to the parliamentary library of Canada. 



* Their Rediscovery and Exploration. 159 

expense was spared in its production. An able corps of 
artists and architects were employed for several years 
in the undertaking. The galleries and cubicula are 
represented in elaborate drawings, plans, and sections, 
and many of the frescoes are copied full size. In these 
latter, however, the artists have injudiciously endeav- 
oured to reproduce the original force, colour, and expres- 
sion, instead of giving facsimiles of the faded, and often 
half-obliterated, paintings. Many of the pictures have, 
therefore, a pre-Raphaelite beauty, which destroys their 
value as accurate representations of the art of the Cat- 
acombs. It is to be regretted that the letter-press which 
accompanies these plates is not more worthy of the gen- 
eral magnificence of. this splendid work. " It is strung 
together," says the writer already quoted,* " without 
discrimination or critical research, and conveys a very 
inaccurate notion of the results which scientific inquiry, 
as opposed to mere ecclesiastical tradition, has now 
reached." We have rarely ventured to make a state- 
ment on its authority unless corroborated by more 
authentic testimony, but many of its accurate draw- 
ings of subterranean architecture enhance the value 
of these pages. 

All previous explorers, however, are left far behind 
by the invaluable labours of the Cavaliere De Rossi, the 
present custode of the Catacombs, and head of the Ro- 
man archaeological commission. His profound knowl- 
edge of Christian antiquities, his unchallenged candour 
and honesty of statement, his patience and ingenuity 
in exploration, his scientific method, accurate observa- 

* Edinburgh Review, January, 1859, p. 48. De Rossi speaks with 
tenderness of this superb editien — la grandiza edizione — which, in 
spite of its defects — mal grado i suoi difetti — is a valuable contribu- 
•ion to the literature of the Catacombs. 



160 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tion, and careful deductions, place him far beyond any 
of his predecessors in this fascinating but difficult field 
of inquiry. While, however, his statements of facts 
may always be relied upon, his theoretical conclusions 
must sometimes be received with caution, in conse- 
quence of that seemingly inevitable tendency in Roman 
Catholic writers to discover ancient evidences in favour 
of their modern belief and practice where they can be 
found by no one else. 

The Catacombs are now placed under the jurisdiction 
of the Roman Cardinal Vicar, assisted by a commission 
of sacred archaeology appointed by the present pontiff. 
As far as the comparatively limited means at their com- 
mand will allow, they zealously prosecute the excavation 
and exploration of this subterranean Rome with a sys- 
tematic method which has already been attended with 
remarkable success, and which promises the most happy 
results in the future. From its crumbling ruins, paint- 
ings, decorations, and inscriptions of different ages, De 
Rossi reconstructs its history, often with the greatest 
minuteness and fidelity. His Roma Sotterranea * con- 
tains a general history of the Catacombs on the principle 
adopted in this volume, and a particular analysis of that 
of Callixtus, embodying his most important discoveries. 
The learned author is also publishing a complete col- 
lection of all the Christian inscriptions of the first seven 
centuries found in the vicinity of Rome. The first 
volume f contains all those with consular dates, which 

* Roma Sotterranea Cristiana. Roma, 1864-67. Four vols, fol., two 
of text and two of plates, which are of great fidelity. The text is 
from the Vatican press. The plates bear the imprint Venezia. 

\ Inscriptiones Christiana Urbis Romce Septimo Scecido Antiqtii- 
ores. Romse. One vol. fol., 1857-61. It is dedicated to the present 
pope, " Another Damasus, who has brought to light the monuments 
of the martyrs. . . . overwhelmed with ruin." — •" PioIX., Pont. Max. 



Their Rediscovery and Exploration. 161 

are invaluable as fixing the chronology of the Catacombs 
and as evidences of doctrine, showing its gradual cor- 
ruption in later times. De Rossi also edits a bimonthly 
journal — the Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana — in which 
the new discoveries are announced. 

Dr. Maitland has the honour of being the first English 
writer on this subject, with the exception of the inci- 
dental allusions of travellers like Evelyn and Burnet. 
His admirable volume on the " Church in the Cata- 
combs " is one of great interest, but having been writ- 
ten thirty years ago is quite out of date ; and the recent 
discoveries of De Rossi and others have shown some of 
its conclusions, especially on the origin of the Cata- 
combs, to be erroneous. His chapters on religious art 
and symbolism are of permanent value, and the theo- 
logical bearing of these Christian evidences has been 
discussed with great candour and moderation. 

In 1852 Mr. MacFarlane published a small volume 
giving a popular account of the Catacombs, making no 
reference, however, to their doctrinal teachings. " I 
have," he says, "carefully avoided controversy." The 
Rev. J. W. Burgon's " Letters from Rome " contain 
some valuable chapters on this subject. The Rev. J. 
Spencer Northcote, D.D., a Roman Catholic clergy- 
man, published in 1857 a compendious "Account of 
the Burial-places of the Early Christians in Rome," 
compiled chiefly from Padre Marchi, whose strongly 
Romanist views he fully adopted. In conjunction with 
the Rev. W. R. Brownlow, M.A., he published in 1869 

alteri Damaso, qui monumenta martyrum, . . . minis obstructa in 
lucem revocat." Both of these works, which embody the result of the 
most recent explorations, have been laid under tribute in the prepara- 
tion of these pages. Several of the illustrations are from the samp 
sources. 

11 



1 62 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the results of De Rossi's labours in a condensed form, 
with reduced copies of many of his plates. With 
the same reserve as in the case of his former volume, 
this is a valuable contribution to the literature of 
this subject.* More recently the Rev. W. B. Mar- 
riott, B.D., has written a work entitled "The Testi- 
mony of the Catacombs," consisting of three mono- 
graphs illustrating the development of the cultus of 
Mary, the gradual encroachments of the papal see, 
as indicated in Christian art, and a critical analysis of 
the celebrated Autun inscription. 

In America, the Right Rev. Wm. Ingraham Kip, D.D., 
published in 1853 a little book of a popular character, 
giving an account of the Catacombs, chiefly from Mait- 
land, MacFarlane, and Aringhi. The authorities on 
which it is based, however, have since been superseded, 
and some of the views which they held disproved by 
recent discovery. 

The only remaining work to be mentioned as illustrat- 
ing this subject is an admirable volume on Christian 
epigraphy f by the Rev. John McCaul, LL.D. The 
learned author's expansions, interpretations, and emen- 
dations of the frequently elliptical, obscure, and un- 
grammatical inscriptions of the Catacombs and other 
early Christian cemeteries, and the reconstruction from 

* Roma Sotterraea. London, 1869. 8vo., pp. 414. It sells in New 
York for about $16 00. 

f " Christian Epitaphs of the First Six Centuries," by the Rev. John 
McCaul, LL.D., President of University College, Toronto. To- 
ronto and London, 1869. Dr. McCaul was previously well known 
10 the archaeological world by his learned volume on Brittanno-Ro- 
mano Inscriptions, a work which has elicited the commendations of 
the highest critical authorities in Europe. The writer of these pages 
has been greatly assisted by his veteran scholarship and critical re- 
vision of the text. 



Their Rediscovery and Exploration. 163 

a few mutilated fragments of important historic evi- 
dence, seem to the uninitiated more a sort of divination 
than a process of reasoning.* 

* Among the smaller treatises on the Catacombs, and separate ar- 
ticles in the encyclopaedias and journals of higher literature, may be 
mentioned the following, most of which have been consulted in the 
prepaiation of these pages : Remusat, Musee Chretien de Rome ; Re- 
vue des Deux Mondes, Juin 15,1863 ; Revue C/11 etienne, Mai, 1864 ; 
Jehan, Diet, des Origin, du Christ., pp. 212, 89 ; Martigny, Diet, des 
Antiq. Chret.,p. 106; Bouix, Th'eologie des Catacombes, Arras, 1864; 
Piper, Mythologie und Symbolik der Christlichen Kunst, Weimar, 
pp. 184, 51, and Die Graben Schriften der Altenten Christen in Evang. 
Kallendar 1855, p. 27, 1827, p. 37/ Edin. Rev., January, 1859, and 
July, 1864 ; Contemp. Rev., September, 1866, and May, 1872 ; 
Monumental Theology, by Prof. Bennett, in Meth. Quar. Rev.. 
January and April, 1871 ; M'Clintock and Strong, Cyclopadia, in verba. 
In the History of Sacred Art in Italy, by C. L. Hemans, son of the 
poetess, are two interesting chapters on the Catacombs, and valuable 
notes of ancient zxt,passim. Seymour's Mornings with the Jesuits has 
some interesting paragraphs on this subject, as has also Prof. Silliman's 
Visit to Europe. The Rev. Wm. Arthur, M.A., has an able Exeter 
Hall lecture on the Catacombs. In Murray's Hand-Book of Rome, 
ed. of 1867, is some interesting information on this topic. In Har- 
pers Mag., April, 1865, is a popular article by Prof. Greene, U. S. 
Consul at Rome. In SchafFs Ch. Hist., 1, § 93 ; Killen's Anc. Ch., pp. 
348-351 ; Stanley's Eastern Churches, and MUman, passim, are inter- 
esting references to the subject. In Westcrop's Hand-Book of Ar- 
cheology, London, 1867, and in the Diet. Epig. Chretienne, Paris, 
1852, are valuable contributions on the epigraphy of the Catacombs. 
Didron's Iconographie Chretienne, Paris, 1841 ; Lord Lindsay's Hist, 
of Art, London, 1847 ; Liibke's History of Art, London, 1869 ; Mrs. 
Jameson's Sacred Art, Tyrwhitt's Christian Art and Symbolism, and 
Hare's Walks About Rome, have also been laid under contribution. 



164 The Catacombs of Rome. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE PRINCIPAL CATACOMBS OF ROME. 

Before leaving this division of our subject we will 
take a rapid survey of the more remarkable of that vast 
system of Christian cemeteries that engirdles the city 
of Rome. It will be more convenient to notice them in 
topographical order, beginning with those on the Appian 
Way, and sweeping around the city to the north-west, 
over the great roads on the borders of which the Cata- 
combs are chiefly situated. The ground near these roads 
is honeycombed with sepulchral excavations, to which 
there are said to be six hundred entrances scattered 
over the Campagna. Bosio found them in almost every 
vineyard near the Salarian Way. In some of these the 
peasants keep their wine, although their fears prevent 
them from venturing far from the mouth ; and some- 
times villas fall in through the subsidence of the 
soil. 

The various groups of crypts have been known by 
different names at different periods, or even at the same 
period ; and it is sometimes difficult or impossible to 
disentangle the conflicting accounts, and to identify the 
cemeteries to which the ancient names were applied. 
The original records — the martyrologies and the Libtr 
Pontificalis* — are sometimes utterly unreliable, and the 

* This book, so often referred to, has been ascribed to Damasus 
but much of it is unquestionably of much later origin. While much 
of its in format i 'Ml is valuable, more of it is quite unauthentic. 



The Principal Catacombs. 



165 



very existence of the saints and martyrs whose lives are 
recorded is often exceedingly apocryphal ; and even if 
their traditions are in the main correct, it is in many 
cases doubtful if they are buried in the Catacombs 
which bear their names. Frequently, however, these 
traditions are confirmed by inscriptions and other mon- 
umental evidence, which establish beyond doubt the 
identity of the Catacomb, as in the case of that of 
Callixtus and others which we shall notice. 




Fig. 25.— Tombs on Appian Way. 

Southeastward from the ancient Porta Capena of the 
city of Rome stretches the celebrated Appian Way, the 
most remarkable of those vast arteries of commerce 
along which flowed to the most distant provinces the 
vital currents from the great heart of the empire. This 
" Queen of Roads," * as it was proudly called, was lined 
on either side by the stately tombs in which reposed the 



* " Qua limite noto 
Appia longarum teritur Regina Viarum." 



-Stat. Syl., II, 2. 



1 66 The Cataco?nbs of Rome. 

ashes of the mighty dead. * " The history of Christian 
Rome," says Padre Marchi, f " gives to this same 
road titles of glory incomparably more solid, just, and 
indisputable. We are forced to acknowledge it as the 
queen of Christian roads by reason of the greater num- 
ber and extent of its cemeteries, and still more by the 
greater number and celebrity of its martyrs." Under 
the present pontiff this historic highway has been ex- 
cavated and opened for travel as far as Albano ; and 
one may now traverse that avenue of tombs on the very 
causeway on which Horace and Virgil, Augustus and 
Maecenas, Cicero and Seneca, must often have entered 
Rome. But it is invested with a profounder interest as 
the way by which the great Apostle of the Gentiles 
approached the city, " an ambassador in bonds," to 
preach the gospel in Rome also, and to finish his testi- 
mony by a glorious martyrdom. By this very road also, 
according to an ancient tradition, his body was stealth- 
ily conveyed by night and deposited in an adjacent Cat- 
acomb ; and here wended many a mourning procession 

* Often mere vulgar wealth exhibited its ostentation even in death 
by the magnitude and magnificence of these tombs designed to per- 
petuate the memory of their occupants forever. But, as if to rebuke 
that posthumous pride, they are now mere crumbling ruins, often de- 
voted to ignoble uses, the very names of whose tenants are forgotten. 
Many of them, during the stormy period of the Middle Ages, were 
occupied as fortresses. More recently that of Augustus, on the Cam- 
pus Martius, was used as an arena for bull-fights, and as a summer 
theatre, where Harlequin played his pranks upon an emperor's grave. 
Some of the tombs have been converted into stables, pig-styes, or 
charcoal cellars. The cinerary urn of Agrippina, wife of Germanicus, 
was long used as a measure for corn. In many a vignarolo's hovel in 
the Campagna swine may be seen eating out of sculptured sarcoph- 
agi, and in the imperial halls where banqueted the masters of the 
world they hold their unclean revels. " Expende Hannibalem," says 
the Roman satirist, " quot libras in duce summo invenies ? " 

f Monumenti delle Arti Cristiane Primitive, p. 73. 



The Principal Catacombs. 1 6/ 

bearing to those lowly crypts the remains of Rome's 
early bishops, martyrs, and confessors. 

The ancient Porta Capena, with the dripping aque- 
duct above it,* have disappeared, and the fountain of 
Egeria, trampled by cattle, is no longer the haunt of 
nymph or naiad. Passing through the modern Sebastian 
gate and crossing the classic Almo, the traveller reaches 
at a short distance the little church of Do mine quo 
vadis, with which is connected one of the most beau- 
tiful legends of the martyrology.f 

About a mile and three quarters from the city he 
comes to Vigna Animendola, on the doorway leading to 
which is a marble tablet with the words ccemeterivm 
s. callixti. Beneath this vineyard lies the celebrated 
Catacomb of Callixtus, of which we propose to enter 
into a somewhat detailed description, as it will give 

* Substitit ad veteres arcus, madidamque Capenam. 

— Juv., Sat., iii. 

\ The legend asserts that as the Apostle Peter was leaving Rome 
in the early dawn, in order to escape martyrdom, he met Our Lord 
bearing his cross, and, throwing himself at his feet, exclaimed, 
Domine quo vadis — "Lord, whither goest thou?" In accents of 
tender rebuke the Master answered, Venio Romam iteruiu crucifigi 
— " I am going to Rome to be crucified again." Stung with contrition 
and remorse, the disciple, according to the tradition, returned to the 
city, and there was crucified — by his own request with his head 
downwards, as unworthy to share the same mode of death as the Lord 
whom he had denied. In the neighbouring church of St. Sebastian 
is a white marble slab bearing impressions said to have been mado 
by the feet of Our Lord. The story is first mentioned by Origen, who 
applies it to St. Paul. St. Ambrose substitutes St. Peter, but tin 
precise spot was not fixed till the fifteenth century ; and Aringhi, in 
the seventeenth century, is the first who mentions the impression of 
the feet in " that stone most worthy, more valuable than any precious 
jewel." This white marble slab is certainly very unlike the dark 
gray porphyry of the Appian pavement, and the irregular depression 
in its surface bears slight resemblance to human feet. But no his- 
torical difficulties are too great for the devout credulity of Rome. 



1 68 The Catacombs of Rome. 

greater definiteness to the general conceptions already 
received, and will serve as a typical example of the 
origin and history of the Catacombs in general. 

In the year 1849 De Rossi found in a cellar in this 
vineyard a broken marble slab with the mutilated in. 
scription ELIVS • MARTYR, and at the beginning the 
upper part of the letters RN. He immediately conjec- 
tured that this was a fragment of the tombstone of 
Cornelius, a Roman bishop of the third century, whose 
sepulchre would probably be found not far off. At his 
persuasion the pope purchased the vineyard, and the 
archaeological commission began the work of excavation. 
They were rewarded by some of the most remarkable 
discoveries which have yet been made. 

The cemetery is situated between the Via Appia and 
the Via Ardeatina, which, are connected by narrow 
cross-roads. De Rossi has prepared a map of the prin- 
cipal part of it, divided into fifteen rectilinear and gen- 
erally rectangular areas. The dimensions of these 
areas are not fractional but round numbers, as 100, 125, 
150, and 250 feet, which cannot be the result of accident, 
and, with other evidences, indicate that they were, like 
similar pagan sepulchral areas, originally so many sepa- 
rate places of burial. When brought under the eccle- 
siastical control of Callixtus, about A. D. 200, they 
probably received one common name, became struc- 
turally united, and were used as a public cemetery 
of the church. 

The first of these areas which we reach on entering 
the vineyard is that known as the crypt of St. Lucina. 
It has a frontage of one hundred feet ofi the Via Appia, 
and an extension in agro of two hundred and thirty feet. 
The limits of this area are exactly defined by the pres- 
ence of a small pagan hypogceum on each side, which the 



The Principal Catacombs. 169 

Christians dared not undermine. In the centre, near 
the road, is a massive monument, shown in the section 
of this crypt, Fig. 14, which De Rossi conjectures to have 
been a Christian mausoleum,* quoting Tertullian f as a 
witness that they had monumenta et mausolea at a very 
early period. % This is more probable from the fact that 
the property belonged to the noble Roman family of the 
Caecilii, with which Cicero was connected, many of 
whose tombs were found in the neighbourhood. This 
probably explains its vicinity to the stately mausoleum 
of Csecilia Metella. The names of many Caecilii and 
other noble Roman families are also found on epitaphs 
in this crypt. This was unquestionably one of the most 
ancient areas of the Catacombs. 

In this area, in 1852, the remaining portion of the epi- 
taph of Cornelius was found at the foot of the tomb to 
which it evidently belonged, in a gallery of unusual 
width. 

This tomb is flanked by pilasters covered with fine 
white stucco, and a mutilated inscription in the well- 
known manner of Damasus commemorates its adorn- 
ment by that pontiff. Numerous graffiti indicate that 
this was a favourite shrine. Faded frescoes of Cornelius, 
Cyprian, and two other bishops, wearing the stole, ton- 
sure, and nimbus, are attributed by De Rossi to the 
ninth century. Beside the tomb is a short column of 
masonry, covered with stucco, which probably sustained 
an altar or the vase of oil in which tapers were anciently 
burned before the shrines of the martyrs ; § indeed, the 

* Rom. Sott., ii, 367. f De Resurrect. Carnis., c. 27. 

\ Rom. Sott., i, 210. 

§ The Council of Elvira, A. D. 305, forbade the burning of wax 
tapers by day in the cemeteries of the dead — Cereos per diem placuit 
in ccemeterio non incendi. Cone. Elib., can. 34. 



170 The Catacombs of Rome. 

fragments of such a vase have been found among the 
rubbish of the tomb. Among the relics sent by Gregory 
the Great to Queen Theodelinda, according to the list 
still extant in the cathedral of Monza, said to be in the 
handwriting of that pope, is one ex oleo S. Cornelii, which 
must have come from this spot. 

When the area of Lucina became crowded with tombs 
another of the same size was opened about a hun- 
dred yards off. It contains the celebrated " Papal 
Crypt," the tomb of St. Cecilia, and other monuments 
of the greatest interest. We will give a somewhat de- 
tailed account of the construction and successive changes 
of this area, following the skilful analysis of De Rossi, 
who has given accurate plans, sections, and measure- 
ments of the whole. It extended, as is shown by the 
dotted lines in the accompanying plan, two hundred 
and fifty feet along the narrow cross-road marked M N, 
and one hundred feet in agro. This would, in the 
first place, be secured as a burial-ground by the 
Christian owner with the proper legal forms, which, we 
have seen, protected the places of sepulture from inva- 
sion or disturbance till the times of the later persecution. 
Openings were then made from the surface at A and B, 
and stairways constructed reaching to a depth of thirty- 
nine feet. These stairways were partly lined with brick- 
work, but were chiefly cut in the solid tufa. The walls 
were coated with fine stucco, white and firm — an evi- 
dence of antiquity — and ornamented with bands of 
a bright red pigment. The original steps were cov- 
ered with marble, but they were afterwards restored 
with masonry. The upper part, indicated by dotted 
lines, is destroyed to the depth of ten feet, and there is 
evidence of the complete obstruction of the passage, 
doubtless during time of persecution. The stairway B 



The Principal Catacombs. 



171 



has been used as a wine store, and is obstructed by a 
wall and a smaller transverse stairway. 

An ambulacrum or gallery was first excavated around 
the sides of the area, and several cross passages, as D, 



, fc.Rl»»V-^^ 







jLJiSL T 




Fig. 26— Part of Cemetery of Callixtus. 

E, F, G, H, I, constructed. The walls are thickly lined 
with graves, and in places the floor has been lowered to 
give room for still more loculi. At D, C, the fossors 
finding the wall to crumble, had to strengthen it with 
masonry, and to desist from lowering the floor of the 



172 The Catacombs of Rome. 

gallery. Hence the latter is not level, but has, in places, 
steps which have been worn to an inclined plane. The 
increasing demand for graves led to the formation of the 
cubicula A, to A 6 , as well as others in the interior of the 
area. Many of these are decorated with frescoes, and A 3 
is known as the Capclla dei Sacramenti, or Chapel of the 
Sacrament, on account of its so-called liturgical paint- 
ings. A 4 has a coloured marble floor of symmetrical de- 
sign, and A 6 has a large sepolcro a mensa lined with 
marble and flanked with marble pilasters. The iron 
bars which supported the table tomb may still be seen. 
There are many Greek as well as Latin inscriptions in 
these galleries, and some of the tiles which close the 
loculi bear the stamp of the emperors M. Aurelius and 
Commodus, which fixes the date of this area. Some 
of the passages are entirely paved with such tiles. Nu- 
merous niches for lamps also occur. At F a well was 
excavated which still contains water. It is furnished 
with foot-holes, that a man might descend in order to 
clean it out. This is common in other wells in the 
Catacombs. 

The ever-pressing necessity for graves compelled the 
fossors at length to attempt the construction of galleries 
on a lower level. Accordingly we find a stairway, 
H, H 2 , of thirty-four steps leading down from the gal- 
lery H. The rock, however, through which this stair- 
way descends is no longer the firm tufa granolare of the 
upper level, but a very friable stratum of pozzolana, 
which made it necessary to protect the walls with brick- 
work. Finding this stratum of great depth, they exca- 
vated a horizontal passage, and a still further narrow 
experimental cleft, as it were, in search of firmer rock, 
but soon abandoned the attempt, failing to find any 
suitable for sepulture. The few graves they made had 



The Principal Catacombs. 173 

to be built of brick-work ; and in one of these was found 
a little terra cotta sarcophagus, containing the body of 
an infant. This shows the utter unfitness of the pozzo 
lana beds in which the arenaria are excavated for the 
construction of the Catacombs. We have seen that 
about A. D. 200 Callixtus became the guardian of this 
cemetery, which seems to have then become the burial- 
place of the bishops of Rome instead of the crypts of 
the Vatican as previously. According to the Liber 
Pontificalis, cut of eighteen bishops from Zephyrinus to 
Sylvester, that is, from A. D. 197 to A. D. 314, no less 
than thirteen were buried in this cemetery. This Cal- 
lixtus was originally a slave, afterwards elevated to the 
highest ecclesiastical dignities, including the episcopate 
itself — a proof of the superiority of the church to all 
social distinctions. According to Hippolytus, the un- 
doubted author of the recently discovered Philosophou- 
mena, he reached that dignity by dishonourable means, 
by fraud and guile. He was at one time banished by 
the emperor to the mines of Sardinia for embezzling 
moneys intrusted to his care, and on his return lapsed 
into heresy bordering on pantheism, or at least was 
charged with that offence. But although the character 
of Callixtus shows the nascent corruptions of the church 
of Rome even early in the third century, it should not 
prejudice us against the cemetery called by his name. 
He himself is interred elsewhere,* and the holy con- 
fessors and martyrs who slumbered here have consecrated 
the place forever with their hallowed dust. 

Toward the middle of the third century, as we have 

* He was killed by being thrown out of the window of his house 
in a popular tumult in Rome. His body was cast into a well, and 
afterwards secretly conveyed to the cemetery of Calepodius, on the 
Via Aurelia, in the immediate vicinity. 



174 The Catacombs of Rome. 

seen, even the cemeteries themselves were not secure 
from invasion by the persecuting tyrants. When the 
protection of the law was withdrawn, the public stair- 
ways A and B, Fig. 26, were blocked up and partially 
destroyed, new passages, B„ and B 3 , were opened into 
the adjacent arenarium for the entrance and escape of 
the Christians, and a very narrow and steep secret stair- 
way, X 4 , was constructed from the roof of the latter to 
the open air, requiring a ladder, which might be re- 
moved to cut off pursuit, or the assistance of friends for 
entrance or departure.* We have here an affecting in- 
stance of the perils to which the persecuted Christians 
were exposed when hunted through these gloomy crypts 
by their cruel pagan foes. The difference between the 
straight and narrow galleries of the Catacombs and the 
wide and unsymmetrical windings of the arenarium 
will be remarked. Connexions were also formed with 
adjacent areas at S, Ci, C s , and B h sometimes break- 
ing directly through the loculi and cubicula. The ut- 
most economy of space was now observed, every avail- 
able foot of wall being occupied ; the inscriptions be- 
come more rude, indicating poverty and oppression ; and 
the stucco or marble ornaments give place to rude 
carvings of the tufa itself into cornices, columns, and 
capitals. Some of the cubicula are made of larger size, 
as if for worship, sometimes six or eight-sided, and oc- 
casionally with apsidal recesses. 

During the terrible period of the Diocletian persecu- 
tion, when the cemeteries were confiscated by the 
heathen government, the Christians, in order to prevent 
the profanation of the more sacred sepulchres, and espec- 
ially that of the bishops, filled up the principal galleries 
with earth at immense expense and labour. Much of 
* See section of this stairway in Fig. 22. 



The Principal Catacombs. 175 

this still encumbers the passages and forms the chief 
obstacle to their exploration. On the cessation of the 
persecution some of these galleries leading to the prin- 
cipal crypts were cleared out by means of cylindrical 
shafts made for the purpose ; and sometimes new gal- 
leries were excavated in the tufa above the old ones, 
the floor of which was formed of the consolidated earth 
in the former gallery. Where this earth has been re- 
moved the height of the two galleries is, in places, twenty 
feet, filled with graves to the top, the upper part bein^. 
much narrower than the lower. The obstructions in 
the stairways A and B were also removed and the stairs 
renewed. 

We have seen that Damasus was indefatigable in his 
restoration of the Catacombs. It might, therefore, be 
expected that this important area would give evidence 
of his labours. Such evidence is found in a broad 
stairway of fine masonry, not shown in Fig. 26, made to 
accommodate the crowds of pilgrims who thronged to 
those sacred shrines, the " Papal Crypt " and tomb of St. 
Cecilia. This stairway was discovered by De Rossi in 
1854, entirely blocked up with an immense mass of earth 
and rubbish, as were also the chambers to which it led. 
The removal of this was a work of great expense and 
labour. The vestibule, L, which we first enter, is con- 
structed entirely of masonry, and is lighted by a large 
luminare. Its plastered walls are covered with graffiti^ 
an indication that we are approaching a spot held in 
especial sanctity by the ancient church.* 

These casual records of the generations of pilgrims 
who have visited the tombs of the primitive bish 
ops, martyrs, and confessors, have proved in many 

* Here were also found a number of polygonal basalt paving- 
stones, evidently from the roadwav above. 



176 The Catacombs of Rome. 

cases of great importance, and are. in the words of De 
Rossi, " the faithful echoes of history, and infallible 
guides through these subterranean labyrinths." But 
they are sometimes also, as we shall see hereafter, 
indications of the corruption of doctrine, and of the 
nascent belief in human mediation between man and 
God. 

It is somewhat of a disappointment to find, on enter- 
ing this celebrated sanctuary, (L : in the plan,) that in- 
stead of being a veritable relic of the third or fourth 
century, most of the masonry is only a few years old. 
When an entrance was effected into it in 1854, which 
could only be done through the luminare, it was found 
in a ruinous condition, filled with earth, broken brick- 
work, and rubbish of every sort. When this was removed 
the vault gave way, and had to be almost entirely rebuilt 
and lined with masonry. The chamber itself is com- 
paratively small, being only about eleven by fourteen 
feet. It has a barrel roof, and is lighted by a large 
luminare. The pavement was of marble, and covered 
graves made beneath it. On each side are eight large 
loculi, the lower row of which has spaces to contain sar- 
cophagi. The walls were formerly lined with marble, 
and had semi-detached marble pillars, the bases of 
which still remain. At the end opposite the entrance 
is a large sepolcra a mensa, in front of which is a dais 
elevated two steps. In this dais are four sockets to 
receive the bases of as many short pillars which sup- 
ported a marble table standing out from the wall, as 
unlike as possible to a modern Roman altar. The whole 
was surrounde-d by a low parapet of marble lattice work, 
fragments of which have been disinterred from the debris 
that encumbered the spot. 

In this little chamber no less than eleven Roman 



The Principal Catacombs. 177 

bishops of the third century are recorded to have been 
buried, and others in its immediate vicinity, when per 
secution or other reasons prevented their being laid in 
it s sacred inclosure. As we have already seen,* De Rossi 
has recovered in the rubbish of this chamber what he 
conceives to be the original epitaphs of five of these 
bishops, and presumptive evidence of the presence of 
others. St. Sixtus, indeed, is frequently mentioned in 
the graffiti as he to whom especial reverence was here 
paid, and De Rossi found in this crypt fragments of 
his epitaph which we have previously given. f The fol- 
lowing Damasine inscription was discovered by De Rossi 
among the debris of this chamber in one hundred and 
twenty fragments, and with great skill and learning re- 
constructed and restored to the wall. 

HIC CONGESTA IACET QVAERIS SI TVRBA PIORVM 
CORPORA SANCTORVM RETINENT VENERANDA SEPVLCHRA 
SVBLIMES ANIMAS RAPVIT SIBI REGIA CAELI 
HIC COMITES XYSTI PORTANT QVI EX HOSTE TROPAEA 
HIC NVMERVS PROCERVM SERVAT QVI ALTARIA CHRISTI 
HIC POSITVS LONGA VIXIT QVI IN PACE SACERDOS 
HIC CONFESSORES SANCTI QVOS GRAECIA MISIT 
HIC IVVENES PVERIQVE SENES CASTIQVE NEPOTES 
QVIS MAGE VIRGINEVM PLACVIT RETINERE PVDOREM 
HIC FATEOR DAMASVS VOLVI MEA CONDERE MEMBRA 
SED CINERES TIMVI SANCTOS VEXARE PIORVM. 

' Here, if you would know, lie heaped together a whole crowd of 

holy ones. 
These honoured sepulchres inclose the bodies of the saints, 
Their noble souls the palace of Heaven has taken to itself. 
Here lie the companions of Xystus, who bear away the trophies from 

the enemy ; 
Here a number of elders, who guard the altars of Christ ; 
Here is buried the priest, who long lived in peace ; 
Here the holy confessors whom Greece sent us ; 



Tp. 81-83. t Pp- 85, 86. 

12 



1 78 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Here lie youths and boys, old men and their chaste offspring, 
Who chose, as the better part, to keep their virgin chastity. 
Here I, Damasus, confess I wished to lay my limbs, 
But I feared to disturb the holy ashes of the saints." * 

An ancient itinerary states that eighty, or, according 
to one account, eight hundred, martyrs are buried in 
this part of the Catacomb ; and in the corner of this 
very crypt is a pit of remarkable depth, probably the 
fiolyandria, in which were " heaped together a whole 
crowd " of the victims of persecution. 

Besides these restorations of Damasus, there is evi- 
dence of successive decorations of this celebrated 
shrine down to the period of Leo III., at the end of the 
eighth century. So great have been the changes thus 
caused that De Rossi confesses that it is impossible to 
say what was the original character of the chamber. 

Adjoining the " Papal Crypt " is that of St. Cecilia, 
(O, Fig. 26,) to which we pass from the former through 
a narrow doorway in the rock. This is one of the largest 
cubicula in the Catacombs, being nearly twenty feet 
square, and is flooded with light by a large luminare. 
The chamber, which gives evidence of having been greatly 
enlarged from its original dimensions, was once lined with 
marble and mosaic, as were also the sides of the doorway 
and the arch above. It has also been frequently adorned 
with paintings, a sure indication of its especial sanctity. 
Among these are a large head of Our Lord, of the Byzan- 
tine type, with a Greek nimbus, in a semicircular niche, 

* The old brick building with three apsides and a vaulted roof, 
near the entrance to this crypt, long used as a gardener's storehouse, 
has been claimed as the basilica which Damasus provided for the 
burial of himself, his mother, and sister ; but it was more probably 
the fabricia for worship or the celebration of the agape, or simply foi 
the guardian of the Catacomb. 



The Principal Catacombs. 179 

and a full-length figure of St. Urban in pontifical robes, 
with his name inscribed. Both of these, De Rossi thinks, 
belong to the tenth or eleventh century. Another pic- 
ture, probably of the seventh century, of a richly attired 
Roman lady with jeweled bracelets and necklace, is 
conjectured to represent St. Cecilia. A large recess in 
the wall next to the " Papal Crypt " is thought to have 
held her sarcophagus. De Rossi and his English editors 
seem to accept substantially the Romish legend of this 
celebrated martyr. Protestant readers, however, will 
take the liberty of rejecting the miraculous part of the 
story as an invention of the fifth century, when the le- 
gend first appears. 

St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, according to her rather 
apocryphal Acts was a maiden of noble rank — ingenua, 
noh'/is, clarissima. She sang so sweetly that the angels 
descended to listen to her voice ; and to her is ascribed 
the invention of the organ, which is therefore her attri- 
bute in art. She was betrothed to Valerian, a pagan of 
patrician rank, yet had vowed to be the spouse of Christ 
alone. She confessed her vow to Valerian on her mar- 
riage-day, and assured him that she was ever guarded 
by an angel of God, who would avenge its violation. 
He promised to respect her vow if he might behold her 
celestial visitant. She told him that his eyes must be 
first illumed by faith and purged with spiritual euphrasy 
by baptism, and sent him to St. Urban, then hiding in 
the Catacomb of Callixtus, who instructed and baptized 
him. On his return he found Cecilia praying, with an 
angel by her side who crowned her with immortal 
flowers — the lilies of purity and the roses of martyrdom. 
His brother Tiburtius came in, and, struck with the 
heavenly fragrance, for it was not the time of flowers, 
he also was converted and baptized. Refusing to 



180 The Catacombs of Rome. 

sacrifice to the pagan gods, the brothers both received 
the crown of martyrdom.* 

Cecilia herself was reserved for a more glorious tes- 
timony. By order of the Roman prefect she was shut 
up in the caldarium, or chamber of the bath, in her own 
palace, which was heated to the point of suffocation. 
After a whole day and a night she was found unharmed. 
No sweat stood upon her brow, no lassitude oppressed 
her limbs. A lictor was sent to strike off her head. 
Three times the axe fell upon her tender neck, but, as 
the law forbade the infliction of more than three strokes, 
she was left alive though bathed in blood. For three 
days she lingered, testifying of the grace of God and 
turning many to the faith ; and then, giving her goods 
to the poor and her house for a church forever, she 
sweetly fell asleep. Her body was placed in a cypress 
coffin — very unusual in the Catacombs, it is doubtful if 
a single example was ever discovered — and buried in 
the cemetery of Callixtus, " near the chapel of the 
popes." 

But miracles ceased not with her death. In the trans- 
lation of the martyrs from the Catacombs by Pascal I., 
in 817, the remains of Cecilia were overlooked. The 
saint appeared to the pope in a vision and revealed the 
place of her burial. f He sought the spot, and found her 
body as fresh and perfect as when laid in the tomb five 
centuries before ! He placed it in a marble sarcopha- 
gus under the high altar of the church of St. Cecilia, 
which he rebuilt upon the site of her palace. 

In the year 1599, or nearly eight centuries later, Car- 

* About A. D. 230, say the Acts, although the Christians then en- 
joyed profound peace. 

f An antique fresco at St. Cecilia represents the apparition of the 
martyr to the pontiff as he slept in his throne on St. Peter's day. 



The Principal Catacombs. 1 8 1 

dinal Sfondrati, while restoring the church, discovered 
this ancient sarcophagus. It was opened in the presence 
of trustworthy witnesses, and there, say the ecclesiastical 
records of the time, vested in golden tissue, with linen 
clothes steeped with blood at the feet, besides remnants 
of silken drapery, lay the incorrupt and virgin form of 
St. Cecilia in the very attitude in which she died.* 

It is difficult to know what proportion of truth this 
legend contains ; but, like many other of the Romish 
traditions, the large admixture of fiction invalidates 
the claims of the whole. Its sweet and tender mysti- 
cism, however, lifts it out of the region of fact into that 
of poetry, and almost disarms hostile criticism. f The 
excessive praise of virginity indicates a comparatively 
late origin. On the festival of St. Cecilia, the 2 2d of 
November, her tomb is adorned with flowers and illu- 
mined with lamps, and mass is celebrated in her subter- 
ranean chapel by a richly appareled priest — strange con- 
trast to the primitive worship with which alone she was 
acquainted. In a sarcophagus discovered near her 

* In an arched recess under the high altar of St. Cecilia is a beau- 
tiful marble statue of the saint in a recumbent posture, by Stefano 
Maderna, accompanied by the following inscription : 

EN TIBI SANCTISSIMAE VIRGINIS CAECILIAE IMAGINEM QVAM IPSE 
INTEGRAM IN SEPVLCHRO IACENTEM VIDI EADEM TIBI PRORSVS 
EODEM CORPORIS SITV HOC MARMORE EXPRESSI. 

" Behold the image of the most holy Virgin Cecilia, whom I myself 
saw lying incorrupt in her tomb. I have in this marble expressed for 
thee the same saint in the very same posture of body." 

f The modern additions have less claim on our reverence. The 
skeptical will see no reason why the remains of Cecilia should defy 
the laws of nature for fourteen centuries, when after only two those 
of Charles Borromeo, also a saint, which are exhibited at Milan arrayed 
in costly gold-embroidered robes and sparkling with gems, reveal 
only a black and decaying head and eyeless sockets, the skin shriveled 
and ruptured and the shrunken lips parting in a ghastly smile. 



1 82 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tomb were found the remains, it is assumed, of hei hus- 
band Valerian and his brother Tiburtius, who had 
manifestly been beheaded ; and also those of the prefect 
Maximus, who was converted by their martyrdom and 
was himself beaten to death by plumbatce. The skull of 
the latter was found broken, as if by such a weapon, and 
its abundant hair matted with blood ! 

Other definite areas of this Catacomb have been 
recognized and their outlines defined. Indeed, Father 
Marchi asserts that this is " the colossal region of Roma 
Sotterranea, all the rest being only small or middling 
provinces."* About a hundred yards from the "Papal 
Crypt " is the tomb of another celebrated martyr and 
bishop, St. Eusebius; the graffiti on the walls, the stair- 
way, and the decorations of which attest the reverence 
in which it was held. While digging here in 1856, De 
Rossi found the important epitaph of Eusebius before 
given, f 

Intimately connected with this are also the adjacent 
cemeteries of St. Soteris, a virgin martyr of the same 
family from which Ambrose was descended ; and that of 
St. Balbina, of vast extent, in several piani, and on a 
scale of unusual grandeur. These are as yet only par- 
tially explored, and promise the richest results to future 
examination. That of St. Balbina has many double, and 
even quadruple, cubicula, and the largest and most regu- 
lar group of subterranean chambers that have yet been 
discovered, all lighted by one large hexagonal shaft. 
They were evidently excavated for worship, not foi 
sepulture. This Catacomb was enlarged and beautified 
by Mark, bishop of Rome, in A. D. 330, who was buried 
in a basilica erected over these tombs. 

These several areas were at first all distinct properties, 
* Movumen. Art. Crist. Prim., p. 172. f Page 95. 



The Principal Catacombs. 183 

and as carefully restricted within their respective limits 
as would be buildings above ground. When, however, 
the sepulchres of the Christians, no longer protected by 
law, were invaded by the persecutors, the different areas 
were connected by a vast and bewildering labyrinth of 
cross passages for the purpose of facilitating escape and 
of furnishing additional space for interment. As the areas, 
even when contiguous, were often at different levels, a 
good deal of ingenuity was exercised by the fossors in 
effecting a junction of the different galleries; though 
often they had to break through loculi and cubicula for 
that purpose. Thus the area we have described so fully 
is five feet lower than that which is adjacent on one 
side, which enables us to determine its exact limit. 

. We will now take a more rapid survey of the other 
principal Catacombs of Rome. 

Nearly opposite the cemetery of Callixtus, on the 
Appian Way, is that of Prastextatus. One of the en- 
trances, situated in the Vigna Molinari, is represented 
in Fig. 2. A well-worn stairway, trodden by the feet of 
pious generations, leads to subterranean galleries of 
considerable extent. It is celebrated as the scene of 
the martyrdom of St. Sixtus and his deacons, A. D. 259 ; 
and as the burial-place of two of them, Felicitas and 
Agapetus, commemorative epitaphs of whom have been 
found. Their tomb, accidentally discovered by some 
labourers in 1857, presents the unique example of a large 
square crypt, not hewn out of the rock but built of solid 
masonry, and formerly lined with marble. This is ex- 
plained by the ancient record that the Christian matron 
Marmenia constructed their tomb immediately beneath 
her own house. A Damasine epitaph of Januarius, who 
suffered under Aurelius, A. D. 162, has also been found 
here In this cemetery, too, occurs that suite of 



1 84 The Catacombs of Rome. 

chambers, with a hexagonal apartment, known as the 
chapel with two halls, represented in section and per- 
spective in Figs. 10 and n. 

Especial interest attaches to the Catacomb of St. Se- 
bastian from the fact of its being the only one of which 
any knowledge was retained during the darkness of the 
Middle Ages. During that obscure period it was known 
in all the ancient documents as the Coemeterium ad cata- 
cumbas, and has given their generic name to this vast 
system of subterranean sepulchres. Lying beneath the 
property of the Augustinian monks, it enjoyed religious 
protection in the rudest ages, and was open to the oc- 
casional pilgrims to the sacred places of the Eternal 
City. It is also that which is most frequently visited by 
modern travellers, being accessible without the special 
permission which must be obtained for exploring the 
other Catacombs. It is situated on the Appian Way, 
about two miles from the Sebastian gate. A stately 
basilica was erected over the entrance to the Catacomb, 
it is said in the time of Constantine. A part of the 
original building which yet remains is claimed to be 
still older, dating from the first century. With this pos- 
sible exception, few traces of the ancient structure now 
exist, the present building having been erected in 1611 
by Cardinal Scipio Borghese. The church is very rich 
in paintings, sculptures, and relics, among which are the 
reputed head of Callixtus, arm of St. Andrew, and body 
of St. Sebastian, the impressions of the Saviour's feet 
in the stone from the Appian Way, and the very chair 
in which St. Stephen received the crown of martyrdom, 
and which was sprinkled with his blood ! 

This Catacomb takes its name from the Christian 
martyr Sebastian, who suffered during the Diocletian 
persecution. The story of his martyrdom is one of 



The Principal Catacombs. 1S5 

great beauty ; but, as is the case with most of these 
legends, its historic value is invalidated by the miracu- 
lous episodes of his history. According to the " Acts 
of St. Sebastian," this young and gallant officer was a 
native of Narbonne, in Gaul, who held the high rank 
of commander of the praetorian guard of Diocletian 
and Maximian. His access to the emperors enabled 
him to offer a powerful protection to the persecuted Chris- 
tians, which he did not fail to extend. Two of his fellow- 
soldiers, Marcus and Marcellinus, were about to recant 
their profession, when Sebastian exhorted them to stead- 
fastness with such fervour as to nerve them for martyr- 
dom and convert the judges and all present. For his 
own fidelity to the Christian faith he was transpierced 
with arrows and left for dead. He recovered, however, 
either through the pious care of the Christian matron 
Irene, or through the special grace of the Virgin. Un- 
deterred by his recent experience, he presented himself 
before the emperor, upbraided him for his persecution 
of the Christians, and foretold his death. He was im- 
mediately seized by the command of the tyrant and 
beaten to death with clubs in the hippodrome of the 
palace, A. D. 286. His body was ignominiously thrown 
into the Cloaca Maxima, or main sewer of Rome, in 
order to deprive it of Christian burial. But the place 
where it lay being revealed in a dream, his remains 
were rescued from their loathsome and unconsecrated 
grave, and piously interred in the Catacomb which 
bears his name 

The indignities that he suffered have been more than 
compensated by the honours paid his relics. Over his 
tomb the high altar of the church blazes with lights 
and jewels, and a marble effigy of the saint pierced with 
arrows commemorates his martyrdom. The genius of 



1 86 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Berini, Guido, and the Caracci, has glorified his memory 
in deathless painting and in " animated bust."* 

Connected with the church is an irregular semi-sub- 
terranean building, where, tradition asserts, the bodies 
of St. Peter and St. Paul for a time reposed. It would ap- 
pear, according to the legend, that upon the martyrdom 
of these " princes of the apostles " the oriental Chris- 
tians sent for their hallowed remains as belonging of 
right to them as their fellow-countrymen. Their bodies 
were conveyed thus far from their original sepulchres 
when a violent storm prevented the accomplishment of 
. the sacrilegious act, and the Roman Christians re-interred 
the sacred relics in this chamber, where they remained, 
according to one account, a year and seven months, or, 
according to another, forty years. f 

The present structure dates probably from the time 
of Liberius, in the middle of the fourth century. The 
indefatigable Damasus made a marble pavement— /<?«/ 
platoniam — and seems to refer to the legend in the fol- 
lowing rather unclassical metrical inscription : 

HIC HABITASSE PRIVS SANCTOS COGNOSCERE DEBES 
NOMINA QVISQVE PETRI PARITER PAVLIQVE REQVIRIS 
DISCIPVLOS ORIENS MISIT QVOD SPONTE FATEMVR 
SANGVINIS OB MERITVM CHRISTVMQVE PER ASTRA SEQVVTI 
AETHERIOS PETIERE SINVS ET REGNA PIORVM 
ROMA SVOS POTIVS MERVIT DEFENDERE CIVES 
HAEC DAMASVS VESTRAS REFERAT NOVA SIDERA LAVDES. 
" Here, you must know, that saints once dwelt. If you ask their 

* This striking object of Christian art has been known, says Mrs. 
Jameson, to cause in Italian women a devotion leading to hopeless 
passion, madness, and death. (" Sacred and Legendary Art," in loco.) 
The soldier saint is regarded as a sort of Christian Apollo, banishing 
disease and pestilence. 

f Pope Gregory I. first mentions the story, circ. A. D. 600, ai a 
reason for refusing to send the head of St. Paul to the Empress 
Constantina. 



The Principal Catacombs. 



187 



names, they were Peter and Paul. The East sent disciples, as we 
willingly acknowledge. The saints themselves had, by the merit of 
their bloodshedding, followed Christ to the stars, and sought the home 
of heaven and the kingdoms of the blest. Rome, however, obtained 
to defend her own citizens. These things may Damasus be allowed 
to record for your praise, O new stars of the heavenly host 




Fig. 27— Plan of Crypt of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. 



Figs. 27 and 28 show the plan and perspective of 
the crypt. D is the chamber and E the subterranean 
vault. Around the wall are twelve arcosolia, in front 
of which runs a low stone seat. In the centre is an 
opening in the floor widening into a vaulted and fres- 
coed marble tomb about six feet square and as many 
deep. Here, according to tradition, the two great 
apostles lay side by side in death ; and to this spot was 
especially given for many centuries the name Catacumbcz. 

A door out of the left aisle of the church leads to the 
Catacomb proper. This, having been so long open, has 
been despoiled of every object of interest, and nearly 
all the monuments and inscriptions have been removed 



1 88 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




Fig. £ 



■HHSBL 

-Crypt of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. 



to the museums of the city. Though of considerable 
extent, it is not nearly as large as some others. Pre- 
vious to De Rossi's exploration of the Catacomb of Cal- 
lixtus in 1854 it was confounded with that cemetery, 
but he has shown that opinion to be erroneous. 

Nearly opposite the church of St. Sebastian is situ- 
ated the Jewish Catacomb discovered in 1859 in the 
Vigna Randanini, and already in part described. The 
principal entrance is an open chamber, originally vaulted, 
with a floor of black and white mosaic and walls of 
masonry. A peculiarity in this cemetery is the number 
of deep graves in the floor capable of containing sev- 
eral bodies, and the number of sarcophagi, some of 
which are finely carved and gilt. The seven-branched 
candlestick frequently occurs on the walls and tombs. 
This Catacomb has been often rifled, and the gal- 
leries are strewn with marble fragments of its monu- 



The Principal Catacombs. 189 

ments. Most of the inscriptions have been dug out of 
this d'ebris and affixed to the adjacent walls. At the 
other entrance, on the Appian Way, are raised stone 
seats, intended, it is thought, as resting-places for the 
bearers of the dead. 

Not far from this cemetery, but fronting on the Via 
Ardeatina, is one which De Rossi concludes upon very 
good evidence to be that of Domitilla, grand niece of 
the emperor Domitian, of whose banishment and prob- 
able martyrdom for the Christian faith we have already- 
spoken. The entrance is an elegant structure of fine 
brickwork with a cornice of terra cotta, built in the 
slope of a rising ground and close by the roadside. 
Connected with the entrance are external chambers, in 
one of which is a well, which were designed, it is con- 
jectured, for the custodian of the Catacomb, and for 
the holding of the religious services connected with the 
burial of the dead and the anniversaries of the martyrs. 
A spacious vestibule within contains recesses once oc- 
cupied by several large sarcophagi, fragments of which 
still remain. The entire roof and walls are covered 
with the most exquisite arabesques and graceful land- 
scapes, as well as biblical paintings, in the style of the 
best classic period. It is evidently the monument of a 
family of wealth and distinction. 

Connected with this Catacomb is that of Nereus and 
Achilles, the chamberlains of Domitilla, who suffered 
martyrdom in the second century. A broad and hand- 
some stairway leads down to the supposed tombs of the 
martyrs in the lower level of the Catacomb. To facil- 
itate the visits of pilgrims to these shrines the galleries 
have been widened and lined with masonry, probably 
by John I., A. D. 523. There are two principal 
piani, in the lower of which is a large chamber 



190 The Catacombs of Rome, 

paved with marble and lighted by a luminare of unusual 
size, reaching to the surface of the ground. A large 
proportion of the inscriptions are Greek, or Latin in 
Greek characters, which circumstance refers the date 
of this Catacomb to a period when Greek was still re- 
garded as a sort of sacred and official language of the 
church. 

On the Via Labicana are several interesting Cata- 
combs. About a mile and a half from the city is that 
of Peter and Marcellinus, the former a priest and the 
latter an exorcist of the time of Diocletian, who with 
other martyrs are said to be buried here. The entrance 
to the Catacomb is from a church built in the ruins of 
the ancient structure traditionally called the mausoleum 
of Helena. 

This tradition has given its name to the interesting 
Catacomb of Helena discovered in 1838 in the Vigna 
del Grande, about a quarter of a mile further along the 
Via Labacana. It was evidently constructed after the 
peace of the church. The marble stairway, mosaic 
pavements, and elegant stucco ornaments betray an 
imperial magnificence impossible during the age of pel • 
secution, and which is found in no other Catacomb. 
The similarity of style and material to that of the con- 
tiguous tomb of Constantia, the sister of Helena, indi- 
cates a synchronous construction. The entrance to the 
Catacomb is by one of those brevissimce ecclesice, or ora- 
tories for meditation and prayer, which were early erected 
near most of the cemeteries, now generally in ruins. 
As shown in the illustration, the descent is by an easy 
stairway and an inclined plane to a vaulted gallery with 
mosaic pavement, in which are arcosolia with brick arch- 
es. The galleries are of great width, and the luminari will 
be observed to be cylindrical in shape. One of these. 



The Principal Catacombs. 191 

it will be seen, is choked with rubbish. The double 
entrance indicated is in accordance with the ancient 
usage, especially in subterranean assemblies, of separat- 
ing the sexes. The same purpose is effected within the 




, m | m 

Fig. 29.— Section of Catacomb of Helena. 

crypt by balustrades, and even by parallel galleries 
to the same chamber. This Catacomb is remarkable 
for the number of its luminari, arcosolia, cubicula, and 
mosaics. A variety of marble, glass, and terra cotta 
vases have also been found, as well as numerous coins 
and medals of the Constantinian period. 

About three miles from Rome on this road, in the 
Vigna del Fiscale, is the Catacomb of / Santi Quairo, or 
Quatuor Coronati, the Four Crowned Ones, as they are 
called. They are said to have been Christian sculptors, 
who, for refusing to exercise their art in the service of 
idolatry, suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. Iron 
crowns, set with spikes, were forced upon their heads, 
and they were then scourged to death with plumbatce. 
Ten miles from Rome in this same road is the Cata- 
comb of St. Zoticus, also honoured as one of the prim- ' 
itive martyrs. 

On the Via Tiburtina, about ten minutes' walk from 
the Porta di San Lorenzo, is the Catacomb of St. Cyriaca, 
named after a Christian matron of noble family, who 
founded it in her own land in the year A. D. 258. Dur- 



192 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ing the thirty-two years of her widowhood she employed 
her vast wealth in ministering to the necessities of the 
saints, and finally herself received the crown of martyr- 
dom. Here it is said the body of St. Lawrence was first 
interred, and afterward removed to the neighbouring 
church, where it is still revered with devout superstition. 
The excavations made to insulate the ancient basilica 
of San Lorenzo, and to enlarge the cemetery at present 
in use, have laid open a number of galleries of this 
Catacomb, exposing the long hidden loculi and paintings 
to the light of day. The style of the ancient inscrip- 
tions and those of the modern necropolis, which, in ac- 
cordance with a decree of the pope, are all in Latin, 
may be compared ; not greatly to the advantage of the 
latter, notwithstanding the rigorous censorship they 
must first undergo. This Catacomb, with others, was ex- 
plored and described by Bosio two centuries and a half 
ago. On the opposite side of the road is the cemetery 
of Hippolytus, commemorated in the verses of Pruden- 
tius in the fourth century. 

About a mile and a quarter from the Porta Pia, on the 
Via Nomentana, is situated the Catacomb of St. Agnes. 
The legend of this saint is one of the most beautiful in 
the martyrology, and has been preserved with peculiar 
fulness of detail by St. Ambrose in his treatise de Vir- 
ginibus. The youthful martyr was the daughter of rich 
and noble Roman parents, and is described in the Acts 
that bear her name as being of a sweet and tender 
beauty. Being sought in marriage by the son of the pre- 
fect of the city, she rejected his suit ; declaring in a 
strain of impassioned eloquence her espousals to a bride- 
groom nobler, richer, and more beautiful far than any 
of earth, who had betrothed her by the ring of his faith, 
and would crown her with jewels to which earthly gifts 



The Principal Catacombs. 193 

were dross — a bridegroom so fair that the sun and 
moon were ravished by his beauty, and so mighty that 
the angels were his servants.* She thus betrayed her 
attachment to the cause of Christ, and was forthwith 
put to the torture in order to compel her recantation of 
the faith. With touching naivete the Acts relate that no 
fetters could be found small enough for her wrists. As 
the crowning ignominy to which her maiden modesty- 
could be exposed, she was sent to the place of shame — 
ad locum turpitudinis ; but her unshorn hair flowed in 
golden waves to her feet, forming a perfect veil, and 
the eyes of the gazers on her degradation were smitten 
with blindness. Having been first cast into the flames, 
which, it is said, played harmlessly about her, she was 
publicly beheaded in the amphitheatre, and overcom- 
ing the feebleness of her age and sex, thus received the 
crown of martyrdom at the tender age of thirteen, 
A. D. 303. f 

* Discede a me fomes peccati . . . quia jam ab alio amatore prae- 
venta sum, qui mihi satis meliora obtulit ornamenta, et annulo fidei 
suae subarravit me, longe te nobilior, et genere et dignitate. — Ambros., 
Epis. 34. 

f Damasus at the end of the fourth century thus commemorates the 
event in one of his metrical inscriptions, now in a lateral aisle of the 
basilica of S. Agnese fuori le Mura : 

FAMA REFERT SANCTOS DVDVM RETVLISSE PARENTES 
AGNEN CVM LVGVBRES CANTVS TVBA CONCREPVISSET 
NVTRICIS GREMIVM SVBITO LIQVISSE PVELLAM 
SPONTE TRVCIS CALCASSE MINAS RABIEMQVE TYRANNI 
VRERE CVM FLAMMIS VOLVISSET NOBILE CORPVS 
VIRABVS IMMENSVM PARVIS SVPERASSE TIMOREM 
NVDAQVE PROFVSVM CRINEM PER MEMBRA DEDISSE 
NE DOMINI TEMPLVM FACIES PERITVRA VIDERET 
O VENERANDA MIHI SANCTVM DECVS ALMA PVDORIS 
VT DAMASI PRECIBVS FAVEAS PRECOR INCLYTA MARTYR. 

"Fame reports that the pious parents formerly brought back Agnes 
when the trumpet had resounded the funeral chants ; that suddenly 
13 



194 The Catacombs of Rome. 

She is frequently represented in art ; sometimes, in 
allusion to her name, with a lamb as her attribute. In- 
deed, after Christ and the Apostles, no figure is more 
common.* The den of infamy in which she was exposed 
to shame became changed to the Christian sanctuary of 
S. Agnese in Piazza JVavoue, one of the most beauti- 
ful churches in Rome. A subterranean cell of peculiar 
sanctity is said to have been the scene of her degrada- 
tion and deliveiance. She was buried in a garden a 
mile from the city, and Constantia, the daughter of Con- 
stantine, having been healed at her tomb of a danger- 
ous malady, that prince erected over her body the church 
of S. Agnese fuori le Mura, which is one of the least 
altered and most beautiful examples of the imperial 
basilicas. A long flight of stairs, whose walls are cov- 
ered with inscriptions from the adjacent Catacombs, 
leads down to the church, which was constructed on a 
level with the reputed tomb of the saint.f 

Many noble Roman families chose the place of their 
sepulture near the tomb of so illustrious a martyr. Con- 

the maiden left the bosom of her nurse, and willingly spurned the 
threats and rage of the cruel tyrant, when he resolved to burn her 
noble body in the flames ; that she overcame her intense fear with 
her feeble strength, and spread her luxuriant hair over her naked 
limbs, lest the face of a perishing man might behold the temple of 
the Lord. O holy one, ever to be honoured by me, sacred ornament 
of modesty, illustrious martyr, I entreat that you aid the prayers of 
Damasus." 

* Jameson, Sac. and Leg. Art., p. 381. According to St. Jerome, 
in the fourth century her fame was in all lands. 

f Here on the Festival of St. Agnes, January 21, is performed the 
ceremony of blessing two lambs, the emblems of the innocence and 
of the name — Agnus, a lamb — of the child-martyr. From the wool 
of these lambs are woven the pallia, which, after lying on the so- 
called tomb of St. Peter, are distributed by the pope to- the great 
church dignitaries as emblems of office. 



The Principal Catacombs. 



195 



stantia herself was there interred, and soon after two 
other daughters of Constantine, Helena, the wife of 
Julian, and Constantina, the wife of Gallus. Having died, 
the former at Vienne in Gaul, the latter at the extremity 
of Bithynia, they were brought from the west and the east 
to rejoin their sister sleeping near this celebrated saint. 
This region became, in fact, the fashionable cemetery 
of the great during the fourth century ; as is still evi- 
dent from the superior regularity and spaciousness of 
the corridors, and the more laboured execution although 
inferior style of the paintings. Thus was formed in 
course of time the vast Catacomb of St. Agnes. 




Fig. 30— Entrance to the Catacomb of St. Agnes. 



The entrance to the cemetery is situated in a deli- 
cious valley about a quarter of a mile from the church, in 
view of the storied hills which have been celebrated by 
Martial and Pliny, and near the ruins of a pagan temple. 
Behind are the gray walls and towers of Rome, and on 
every side spreads the solemn expanse of the Campagna. 



196 The Catacombs of Rome. 

All is graceful and picturesque in the .andscape, " and 
it is not," says Perret, " without a pious tenderness * that 
the charm of the place blends in the soul of the pilgrim 
to the shrine of the Christian heroine." The stairs by 
which the descent is made date probably from the time 
of Constantine. The graves on either side of the some- 
what spacious gallery have long been rifled of their 
contents. Several of these from their size were evi- 
dently designed for bisomi. The consular date, A. D. 
336, on a tomb attests the age of this part of the Cata- 
comb. One suite of chambers near the entrance, but in 
the lower and therefore more recently constructed piano, 
has received the title of the Basilica. The larger cubicu- 
lum has two tufa seats at the side, and one more elevated 
for the presiding presbyter. The altar, probably a small 
movable one of wood, if any at all, must have stood before 
the presbyter. On the opposite side of the gallery is a 
chamber, divided by columns and an arch, supposed to 
have been for the females of the assembly, or perhaps 
for the catechumens not yet admitted to the celebration 
of the eucharist. A connected series of five chambers has 
been found, and one cubiculum, called the scuole grande, 
will contain seventy or eighty persons. Much of the 
architecture, however, is debased, indicating the de- 
cline and eclipse of art in the fifth or sixth century. 
Another chamber is known as the Lady Chapel, or 
Crypt of the Virgin, on account of the so-called 
picture of the Madonna which it contains ; f and a 
third as the Baptistery, from the presence of a spring 
of water, supposed to have been used in baptismal 
rites. 

One feature of especial interest associated with this 

* " Attendrissement." — Les Catacombes de Rome, torn, ii, p. 52. 
f See Fig. 90. 



The Pri7icipal Catacombs. 197 

cemetery is its connexion with an adjacent arenarium, 
or sand pit. This is situated near the basilica of St. 
Agnes, and overlies part of the Catacomb. It consists 
of a series of large and gloomy caverns utterly unlike the 
sepulchral crypts below. A stairway leads down to the 
Catacomb, and also a deep shaft with foot-holes cut in 
the rock for climbing. Probably this was the only way 
of escape in time of persecution. There is also ap- 
parent evidence of the existence of a windlass, by which 
the excavated tufa was raised, and either deposited in 
the arenarium or carted away. This cemetery has been 
carefully examined by Padre Marchi, who has published 
a plan of an area of about seven hundred by five hun- 
dred and fifty feet. The united length of the passages 
in this part is about two English miles. ; Yet Father 
Marchi says this area is only about one eighth of the 
whole Catacomb, the aggregate extent of whose streets 
would, therefore, be fifteen or sixteen miles. 

Just without the Porta Pia on this Nomentan Way, is 
the little Catacomb of Nicodemus. At the third mile, 
we read in ancient records, was that of Ostrianus or 
Fons Petri, as it was called, from a tradition that Peter 
once baptized there. It has not, however, been satis- 
factorily identified. Nearly six miles from the city is 
the so-called Catacomb of Alexander, bishop of Rome 
A. D. 1 1 7-1 20, who, according to the Liber Pontificalis, 
suffered martyrdom by decapitation on this spot under 
the emperor Hadrian, together with the presbyter Even- 
tius and the deacon Theodulus. Here were discovered 
in 1853, below the level of the Campagna, the ruins of 
an ancient basilica erected in honour of these martyrs. 
In the roofless structure was found a sarcophagus bear- 
ing the name of Alexander, and probably once contain- 
ing his ashes. The graves here are less disturbed than 



198 The Catacombs of Rome. 

in the Catacombs nearer Rome. This cemetery was 
used for sepulture comparatively late, as the language of 
some of the inscriptions indicates a decided approxima- 
tion to modern Italian. In 1857 the foundations of a 
large church, designed to include the whole of the an- 
cient structure, were laid with great pomp by the present 
pontiff. 

The Salarian Way is exceedingly rich in Christian 
cemeteries. Prominent among these is the Catacomb 
of St. Priscilla, one of the noblest monuments of the 
primitive church. It is of interest also as that whose 
accidental discovery in 1578 led to the unveiling of these 
vast treasuries of Christian antiquity. The entrance is 
beautifully situated amid embowering verdure, in the 
vineyard of the Irish college, about two miles from the 
Porta Salara.* Tradition asserts that this cemetery was 
dug in the property of the senator Pudens, mentioned 
by St. Paul ; and a crypt called, from the language of 
its inscriptions, the Cappella Greca, is alleged to be the 
sepulchre of his daughters Pudentiana and Praxedes, 
and other members of that distinguished Christian fam- 
ily. If so, this is the most ancient Catacomb yet dis- 
covered. The classical style of the architecture, fres- 
coes, graceful stucco reliefs, and garlands, and the 
character of the inscriptions, all point to a period before 
art became degraded and the church oppressed. Some 
of the galleries are exceedingly long and straight, and 
one is the most extensive yet discovered. Its prin- 
cipal crypt is remarkable as being regularly built of 
masonry, and without the usual loculi in the walls, being 
evidently designed for the reception of sarcophagi — 
another proof of its high antiquity. A portion of this 
cemetery has been constructed with great labour in an 
* See Fici. !■ 



The Principal Catacombs. 199 

ancient arenarium, and shows how unsuited these exca- 
vations were for the purposes of Christian sepulture. 
Long walls of solid masonry and numerous pillars 
of brick work have been built for supporting the 
roof and giving space for loculi. A large shaft for re- 
moving pozzolana has been transformed into a luminare 
by being bricked up to about half its original dimen- 
sions. Only one of the four piani in which the Cata- 
comb is constructed being easily accessible, it has been 
but partially explored. The ancient records assert that 
Marcellinus and Marcellus, martyr-bishops of the church 
in the time of Diocletian, are buried here ; also Crescen- 
tianus and Silvester; and we have already seen the 
memorial inscription of three thousand other martyrs, 
whose remains are said to hallow these sacred crypts. 

On this same road are the Catacomb of St. Felicitas, 
with three piani of galleries much dilapidated ; that of 
Thraso and Saturninus, of considerable extent but diffi- 
cult of access ; and the crypt of Chrysanthus and Da- 
ria, in which these martyrs were blocked up alive by 
command of the Emperor Numerian. On the old Sala- 
rian Way is the Catacomb of Hermes, who is said to 
have suffered in the time of Hadrian. It is partially 
constructed, as we have seen, in an arenarium, and con- 
tains the largest subterranean church yet found, with 
remarkable mosaics of Daniel and of the resurrection of 
Lazarus in the vaulting of the roof. 

There are comparatively few Catacombs of interest on 
the northwest bank of the Tiber, owing to the smaller pop- 
ulation of that part of Rome in ancient times. We shall 
biiefly enumerate the more important. On the Flaminian 
Way is the cemetery of St. Valentinus. On the Aure- 
lian Way are those of Agatha, Pancratius, and Calepo- 
dius. The latter, the reputed burial place of Callixtus 



200 The Catacombs of Rome. 

and of many martyrs, is beneath the church dedicated 
to Pancratius — the English Pancras — and on the sup- 
posed scene of his sufferings. On the Via Portuensis, 
near the city, is the Catacomb of Pontianus, a patrician 
Roman of the third century. It is remarkable for the 
very perfect subterranean baptistery to be hereafter de- 
scribed. On the Ostian Way, near the basilica of S. 
Paolo fuori le Mara, is the ancient cemetery of Commo- 
dilla, or Lucina, in which tradition asserts»that the body 
of the apostle Paul was laid after his martyrdom. * It 
is in a very ruinous condition, most of the galleries be- 
ing choked up and impassable ; but here Boldetti found 
the two oldest extant inscriptions. On this road also is 
the Catacomb of St. Zeno, in which were said to be 
buried twelve thousand Christians employed in building 
the Baths of Diocletian. 

On the Vatican Hill, now crowned with the grandest 
temple in Christendom, is said to have existed the old- 
est Christian cemetery of Rome. Tradition asserts that 
the remains of St. Peter were interred on this spot, on the 
site of an ancient temple of Apollo, and near the alleged 
scene of the apostle's martyrdom in the circus of Nero, 
and that hither they were restored after their removal to 
the crypt of Sebastian.* Here also ancient ecclesiastical 
documents record the burial of ten of the Roman 
bishops of the first and second centuries ; f after which, 
we have seen, the Catacomb of Callixtus became their 

* This is probably " the trophy on the Vatican," mentioned by 
the Roman presbyter Caius, quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., ii, 25. 
When Heliogabalus made his circus on the Vatican the body was said 
to have been again transferred to St. Sebastian ; but it is impossible tc 
unravel the tangled accounts of the ancient documents. 

f On this spot De Rossi says was discovered in the seventeenth 
century the sepulchre of the very first bishop after Peter, (?) bearing 
simply the name LINVS. 



The Principal Catacombs. 201 

chief place of burial. The series of papal interments 
in this place again begins with that of Leo the Great, 
A. D. 461. In the dim crypts beneath the high altar 
of St. Peter's are shown the tombs of most of his suc- 
cessors, many of them far removed in life and character 
from the lowly Galilean fisherman.* 

We cannot better conclude this necessarily imperfect 
survey of these ancient Christian cemeteries than by 
quoting the following passage, though characterized by 
a somewhat fervid rhetoric, from " Les Trois Romes " 
of the Abbe Gaume : " Here is the glorious monument," 
he exclaims, "of the faith and charity of our fore- 
fathers ! This work of giants was completed by a com- 
munity of poor men, destitute of resources, without talent 
as without fortune, incessantly persecuted and frequently 
decimated. What, then, was the secret of their power ? 
This is the problem suggested by the sight of the Cata- 
combs in general, and of the Catacombs on the Appian 
Way in particular. The solution is in one word — 
Faith. This power — unknown to the ancient world, 

* Of especial interest to English-speaking visitors to this shrine of 
departed greatness will be three urns containing the ashes of " James 
III.," " Charles III.," and " Henry IX.," as they are designated, the 
last princes of the unfortunate house of Stewart. The third of these, 
Henry Benedict Maria Clement, second son of James the Pretender, 
took orders at Rome, was advanced to the purple, and during the life- 
time of his brother, Charles Edward, was known as Cardinal York. 
On the death of his brother he assumed the regal style of Henry IX., 
King of England. The usurpation of Bonaparte caused his flight to 
Venice, where, aged and infirm, the descendant of a line of kings 
sank into absolute poverty. His successful rival for the British 
throne, George III., learning his deplorable situation, generously set- 
tled on him an annuity of ,£4,000, which he enjoyed till his death in 
1807, at the age of eighty-two. With the worn old man, dying upon 
a foreign shore, passed away the last survivor of the ill-starred dy- 
nasty which has contributed through successive generations so many 
tragic and romantic episodes to the drama of history. 



202 The Catacombs of Rome. 

and too little recognized in the modern world — this faith, 
was the lever by which the early Christians could re- 
move mountains, and turn and change the universe. 
With one hand they constructed in the bowels of the 
earth a city more astonishing than Babylon or the 
Rome of the Caesars ; and with the other, seizing on 
the pagan world in the abyss of degradation into which 
it was plunged, they raised it to the virtue of angels, 
and suspended it to the cross." 



BOOK SECOND. 

THE ART AND SYMBOLISM OF THE CATACOMBS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 

The conditions under which Christian art was culti- 
vated in the early centuries were eminently unfavourable 
to its highest development. It was not, like pagan art, 
the aesthetic exponent of a dominant religion, enjoying 
the patronage of the great and the wealthy, adorning 
the numerous temples of the gods and the palaces and 
banquet chambers of the emperors and senators, com- 
memorating the virtues of patriots and heroes, and body- 
ing forth the conceptions of poets and seers. There 
was no place in the Christian system for such repre- 
sentations as the glorious sun-god, Apollo, or the lovely 
Aphrodite, or the sublime majesty of Jove, which are 
still the unapproached chefs cTceuvre of the sculptor's 
skill.- The beautiful myths of Homer and Hesiod were 
regarded with abhorrence, and the Christians were ex- 
pressly forbidden to make any representation of the 
supreme object of their worship, a prohibition which in 
the early and purer days of Christianity they never 
transgressed. 

Nevertheless, the testimony of the Catacombs gives 
evidence that art was not, as has been frequently as- 
serted, entirely abjured by the primitive Christians on 
account of its idolatrous employment by the pagans. 



204 TJie Catacombs of Rome. 

They rather adopted and purified it for Christian pur- 
poses, just as they did the diverse elements of ancient 
civilization. It was not till increasing wealth and the 
growing corruptions of the church led to the more lav- 
ish employment of art and its perversion to superstitious 
uses that it called forth the condemnation of the Fathers 
of the early centuries. 

The art of any people is an outgrowth and efflores- 
cence of an internal living principle : and as is the 
tree so is its fruit. An adequate representation of its art 
being given, we may estimate, at least proximately, the 
moral condition of any age or community. It is the 
perennial expression of the phenomena of humanity. 
The iconography of the. early centuries of Christian- 
ity is, therefore, a pictorial history of its develop- 
ment and of the successive changes it has under- 
gone.* The corruptions of doctrine, the rise of dog- 
mas, the strifes of heresiarchs and schismatics, are all 
reflected therein, f 

The frescoes of the Catacombs are illustrations, in- 
estimable in value, of the pure and lofty character o\ 
that primitive Christian life of which they were the off- 
spring. They were the exponent of a mighty spiritual 
force, " seeking," as Kugler remarks, " to typify in the 
earthly and perishing the abiding and eternal."! The 
very intensity of that old Christian life under repression 
and persecution created a more imperious necessity for 
a religious symbolism as an expression of its deepest 
feelings and as a common sign of the faith. Early Chris- 

* M. Didron's Iconographie Chrktienne is a valuable contribution 
on this important subject. 

f In the beautiful figure of Pressense, all art is an ^Eolian harp, 
shivering with the breezes that pass over it. 

% Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte, p. xii. 



Early Christian Art. 205 

tian art, therefore, was not realistic and sensuous, but 
ideal and spiritual. It sought to express the inner es- 
sence, not the outer form. 

Christianity has nothing to fear from the comparison 
of these remains of its primitive art with those of the 
pre-existing art of paganism. As little has Protestantism 
to fear their comparison with the monuments of that de- 
based form of Christianity into which the early church 
so soon, alas ! degenerated. On the one hand may be 
seen the infinite contrast between the abominable con- 
dition of society under the empire and the purity of life 
of the early Christians ; and on the other, the gradual 
corruption of doctrine and practice as we approach the 
Byzantine age. The exhumation of Pompeii and the 
recent exploration of the Catacombs bring into sharp 
contrast Christian and pagan art. While traversing the 
deserted chambers of the former " two thousand years 
roll backward," and we stand among the objects familiar 
to the gaze of the maids and matrons of the palmy days 
of Rome. But what a tale of the prevailing sensuality, 
what a practical commentary on the scathing sarcasms 
of Juvenal, the denunciations of the Fathers, and the 
awful portraiture of St. Paul, do we read in the polluting 
pictures on every side. Nothing gives a more vivid 
conception of the appalling degradation of pagan society 
in the first century of the Christian era than the disin- 
terred art of that Roman Sodom. Amid the silence and 
gloom of the Catacombs we are transported to an en- 
tirely different world ; we breathe a purer moral atmos- 
phere ; we are surrounded by the evidences of an 
infinitely nobler social life ; we are struck with the 
immeasurable superiority in all the elements of true 
dignity and grandeur of the lowly and persecuted Chris- 
tians to the highest development of ancient civilization. 



206 The Catacombs of Rome. 

The decoration of these subterranean crypts is the 
first employment of art by the early Christians of which 
we have any remains. A universal instinct leads us to 
beautify the sepulchres of the departed. This is seen 
alike in the rude funeral totem of the American savage, 
in the massive mausolea of the Appian Way, and in the 
magnificent Moorish tombs of the Alhambra.* It is 
not, therefore, remarkable that the primitive Christians 
adorned with religious paintings, expressive of their faith 
and hope, the graves of the dead, or in times of persecu- 
tion traced upon the martyr's tomb the crown and palm, 
emblems of victory, or the dove and olive branch, the 
beautiful symbol of peace. It must not, however, be 
supposed that the first beginnings of Christian art were 
rude and formless essays, such as wo see among bar- 
barous tribes. The primitive believers ha^d not so much 
to create the principles of art as to adapt an art already 
fully developed to the expression of Christian thought. 
Like the neophyte converts from heathenism, pagan art 
had to be baptized into the service of Christianity. 
" The germs of a new life," says Dr. Ltibke, " were in 
embryo in the dying antique world. Ancient art was the 
garment in which the young and world-agitating ideas 
of Christianity were compelled to veil themselves."! 
Hence the earlier paintings are the superior in execu- 

* One of the earliest indications of human existence on the planet 
is a sepulchral cave in the post-pliocene drift at Aurignac, in France, 
in which are evidences of the celebration of the funeral banquet and 
other sepulchral rites. " The artificially closed Catacomb," says Dr. 
Wilson, " the sepulchred dead, the gifts within, the ashes and debris 

of the last funeral feast without all tell the ever-recurring story 

of reverent piety, unavailing sorrow, and the instinctive faith in a 
future life which dwells in the breast of the rudest savage." — " Pre- 
historic Man," by Daniel Wilson, LL.D., Toronto University, p. 84. 

+ " History of Art," by Dr. Wilhelm Liibke, vol. i, p. 275. 



Early Christian Art. 207 

tion, and manifest a richness, a vigour and freedom like 
that of the best specimens of the classic period. Their 
design is more correct, their ornamentation more chaste 
and elegant, and the accessories more graceful than in 
the later examples. These shared the gradual decline 
which characterized the art of the dying empire, be- 
coming more impoverished in conception, stiff in man- 
ner, and conventional and hieratic in type, till they sink 
into the barbarism of the Byzantine period. 

This is contrary to the opinion which has till recently 
been entertained. Lord Lindsay asserts of the paint- 
ings of the Catacombs that, " considered as works of 
art, they* are but poor productions — the meagreness of 
invention only equalled by the feebleness of execution 
— inferior, generally speaking, to the worst specimens of 
contemporary heathen art."* But this characteriza- 
tion was the result of imperfect acquaintance with the 
subject. Indeed, he speaks of the Catacombs as " for 
the most part closed up and inaccessible, and the 
frescoes obliterated by time and destroyed." But re- 
cent discoveries have brought to light many important 
examples which completely disprove his depreciatory 
estimate. In many of the newly opened crypts the 
colours are as fresh as if applied yesterday ; and, as re- 
gards style and execution, the frescoes of the Catacombs 
" approach," says the eminent art critic, Kugler, " very 
near to the wall paintings of the best period of the em- 
pire." f No one can look through the magnificent vol- 
umes of Perret without being struck with the grace, 
vigour, and classic beauty of many of the paintings there 
reproduced. It is admitted that the French artists have 
" touched up " the faded colours, and some of the pic- 

* " History of Christian Art," vol. i, p. 39. 
f Handbuch der KunslgeschichU, p. 14. 



2o8 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tures may be better termed restorations than accurate 
copies ; but they are nowhere accused of being false to 
the general character and spirit of the originals. 

The antiquity of these better specimens of Christian 
art is still further confirmed by their being found in the 
oldest crypts of the Catacombs ; and, like the architec- 
tural character of these more ancient chambers, they 
indicate the publicity of their construction and their legal 
protection. In the later excavations, on the contrary, the 
paintings are few in number, and inferior in type and 
execution — an evidence of the persecution and impov- 
erishment of the Christians as well as of the decline of 
art. The more celebrated shrines, it is true, were repeat- 
edly decorated at successive periods down to the ninth 
century ; * but the times of these decorations may be 
approximately estimated by internal evidence, as the 
presence of the Constantinian monogram, of the 
nimbus,f and other characteristic signs testify. 

Early Christian art thus sprang out of that 
which was pre-existing, selecting and adapting what was 
consistent with its spirit, and rigorously rejecting what- 
ever savoured of idolatry or of the sensual character of 
ancient heathen life. It stripped off, to use the figure 
of Dr. LQbke, what was unsuitable to the new ideas, 

* Mr. J. H. Parker refers to the fifth or sixth century many paint- 
ings which De Rossi ascribes to the second or third. These eminent 
authorities represent two extremes of opinion. Probably the truth 
lies between them. 

\ No example of the former is known before A. D. 312. The nim- 
bus is given to Our Lord in the fourth century, to angels in the fifth, 
but did not reach its widest application till the seventh. (Martigny, 
Diet, des Antiqs. Chr6t.) It was employed in ante-Christian pagan 
art, both Egyptian and classical. In Byzantine art it is a symbol of 
power and of office, and was therefore given alike to Pharaoh, Saul, 
Herod, Constantine, Judas, the apocalyptic Dragon, and Satan 
Sometimes that of Judas is black. (Didron, Iconog. Chr&t. in loco.) 



X 



Early Christian Art. 209 

and retained the healthy germ from which the tree of 
Christian art was to unfold in grand magnificence. As 
Christianity was the very antithesis of paganism in 
spirit, so its art was singularly free from pagan error. 
There are no wanton dances of nude figures like those 
upon the walls of Pompeii, but chaste pictures with fig- 
--ures clothed from head to foot ; or, where historical 
accuracy required the representation of the undraped 
form, as in pictures of our first parents in the garden of 
Eden, or of the story of Jonah, they are instinct with mod- 
esty and innocence. Pagan art, a genius with drooping 
wing and torch reversed, stood at the door of death, but 
cast no light upon the world beyond. Christian art, in- 
spired with lofty faith, pierced through the veil of sense, 
beyond the shadows of time, and beheld the pure spirit 
soaring above the grave, like essence rising from an 
alembic in which all the grosser qualities of matter are 
left behind. Hence only images of hope and tender 
joy were employed. There is no symptom of the de- 
spair of paganism ; scarce even of natural sorrow. 

Independent statues were in the first ages rarely if 
ever used.* There seemed to be greater danger of 
falling into idolatry in the imitation of these, in which 
form were most of the representations of the heathen 
deities, than in the employment of painting; and it 
was against the making of graven images that the pro- 
hibition of Scripture was especially directed.! Their 
fabrication, therefore, was especially avoided. Indeed, 
sculpture never became truly Christian, and even 
in the hands of an Angelo or a Thorwaldsen failed 
to produce triumphs of skill like those of Phidias or 

* Certain Gnostic images will be hereafter mentioned. 

I Ex. xx, 4. ioS is a carved image, from the root ^D"3, to cut, or 
carve. 

14 



2 1 o The Catacombs of Rome. 

Praxiteles. Christian graphic art, however, in its noblest 
development far surpassed even the grandest achieve- 
ments of which we have any account of the schools of 
Apelles and Zeuxis. Christianity is the embodiment of 
the gentler graces ; paganism, in its purest form, that 
of the sterner virtues. The former finds its best expres- 
sion in painting, the latter in sculpture. 

The first Christian paintings were light and graceful 
sketches, after the manner of the older classic art ; and 
but for the substitution of a Christian for a heathen con- 
ception — a biblical scene or character, as Daniel in the 
lions' den, Jonah, or the Good Shepherd, or some strik- 
ing Christian symbol — it would be difficult to distinguish 
them from contemporary pagan pictures.* While the 
principal figure gave an unquestionably Christian char- 
acter to the whole, the accessories, divisions of space, 
colouring, and general treatment were quite in the 
manner of the antique. Garlands, festoons of flowers 
and vases of fruits ; graceful arabesques, luxuriant vines, 
grapes, birds and genii ; ideal heads, masks, and fabu- 
lous animals ; hunting, vintage and harvest scenes, and 
pastoral groups ; personifications of the hours, seasons, 
rivers, and the like, made up the entourage, or formed 
part of the picture. Thus the roof of a crypt in the 
most ancient part (probably of the first century) of the 
cemetery of Domitilla is completely covered with 
branches trailing in graceful curves with exquisite natu- 

* These pictures were generally on smooth white plaster, and in 
beautiful bright colours, for the most part in spaces limited by lines 
of vivid blue, yellow, or red, or by bands of Egyptian-like lotus or 
lily pattern. If on the ceiling, they were in lunettes similarly divided. 
These bands frequently run around the loculi and arcosolia, and di- 
vide the walls into panels. Occasionally the latter are covered with 
a reticulated or lattice-like pattern in bright, opaque colors. The 
paintings ai° now often much faded and defaced. 



Early Christian Art. 211 

ralness, and entirely free from the conventional restraint 
and geometrical symmetry which indicate the subsequent 
decline of art. Among the branches flit birds, and 
winged genii like little cupids. Another specimen of 
great beauty, of the second century, in the Catacomb 
of Praetextatus, exhibits a well drawn harvest scene, with 
wreaths of roses, vine, and laurel, and with birds flitting 
about their nests. A fresco of the Good Shepherd and 
an inscription attest its Christian character. The dra- 
pery and drawing of the figures in the earlier examples 
are also exceptionally good. 

Several of the Christian symbols were common also 
to pagan art ; as the palm, the crown, the ship, and 
others to be hereafter mentioned. They acquired, how- 
ever, under Christian treatment a profounder and nobler 
significance than they ever possessed before. But there 
are other and more striking examples of the adoption, 
when appropriate to Christian themes, of subjects from 
pagan art. Orpheus charming the wild beasts with his 
lyre is a frequently recurring figure in the Catacombs, 
and is referred to by the Christian Fathers as a type of 
Him who drew all men to himself by the sweet persua- 
sive power of his divine word. The victory of Our 
Lord over death and hell, and probably an ancient inter- 
pretation of his preaching to the spirits in prison,* may 
have found a sort of parallel in the beautiful legend of 
the faithful lover seeking in the under-world the lost 
Eurydice bitten by a deadly serpent ; while, at the 
sound of his wondrous harp, gloomy Dis was soothed, 
Ixion's wheel stood still, Tantalus forgot his thirst, and 
the stone of Sisyphus hung poised in air.f The Orphic 

* r Pet. iii, 19. 

\ The Mediaeval conception of Christ's " Harrowing of Hell " and 
lelivery of our first parents, ruined through the guile of the serpent. 



2 1 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

verses were also said by the Fathers to have contained 
many true prophecies concerning Our Lord. These, 
however, like the testimony of the Sibyls, were pious 
forgeries of post-Christian date. 

Another fable of the pagan mythology reproduced in 
early Christian art is that of Ulysses and the Sirens. A 
sarcophagus in the crypt of Lucina represents the 
" much-planning " wanderer of Ithaca, bound to the 
mast, deaf to the blandishments of the rather harpy- 
like daughters of the sea, and so sailing safely by. Max- 
imus of Turin, in the fifth century, explained the ship 
of Ulysses to be " a type of the church, the mast being 
the cross, by which the faithful are to be kept from the 
seductions of the senses. Thus," he says, " shall we be 
neither held back by the pernicious hearing of the 
world's voice, nor swerve from our course to the better 
life, and fall upon the focks of voluptuousness."* 

These reminiscences of pagan art are more frequent 
in the sculptures of the sarcophagi, in which the classic 
type seems more persistent than in the paintings. Thus, 
in a bas-relief, in the Lateran Museum, of the ascent of 
Elijah in the fiery chariot to heaven, by a strange solecism 
Mercury is represented standing at the horses' heads. 
This was probably the result of an unconscious imitation 
of some heathen design. On a sarcophagus from the 
Catacomb of Callixtus, in a harvest scene, is what seems 
to be a representation of Cupid and Pysche. This, 
however, was found buried beneath the floor, and bore 
indications of having been coated with plaster, as if in 
concealment of the heathen figures. On others have 

is a striking analogue of this myth. Compare also Bacon's rather 
fantastic explanation of this legend by the principles of natural and 
moral philosophy. See his " Wisdom of the Ancients," chap. xi. 
* Horn, i, De Cruce Domini. 



Early Christian Art. 213 

been observed bas-reliefs of Bacchus attended by cu- 
pids, fawns and satyrs, the unfortunate Marsyas, the 
desertion of Ariadne, and the return of Ulysses. It is 
probable that some of these incongruities resulted from 
the sarcophagus having been carved by a pagan artist, 
inasmuch as sculpture was less likely to be practised by 
the Christians than painting. Indeed, some of these 
subjects, offensive to Christian feeling, have been care- 
fully defaced with a chisel, or turned to the wall ; as one 
in the crypt of Lucina, on which is a bacchanalian scene, 
while on the rough side, exposed to view, is inscribed the 
Christian epitaph. The sarcophagi of Constantia and 
Helena, daughters of Constantine, now in the Vatican 
Museum, bear vintage and battle scenes and Bacchic 
masks ; and on that in which the Emperor Charlemagne 
was buried, probably of pagan origin, is represented the 
rape of Proserpine. On the gilded glasses of the Cata- 
combs, some of which were evidently employed for fes- 
tive purposes, pagan influence also appears in such 
representations as Achilles, Hercules, Daedalus, Minerva 
the Graces, Cupid and Psyche, Neptune with his trident, 
and a river-god as the symbol of the Jordan. 

Even in distinctively Christian subjects it is some- 
times apparent that the artist had not freed himself from 
the influence of pagan types. Thus the Good Shepherd 
is represented with the short tunic and buskins of the 
Roman peasant, and often with the classic syrinx or 
rustic pipes, probably from some reminiscence of the 
popular rural deity, the god Pan. In the Lateran Mu- 
seum is a manifest example — the sarcophagus of Pau- 
lina — of a pagan sculpture having been adapted as a 
Christian Good Shepherd. In a bas-relief of Jonah, 
in the Vatican Library, the classic influence is seen 
in the Triton blowing his horn, and Iris floating over 



214 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the vessel with her fluttering scarf, to indicate the sub- 
sidence of the storm. The ship is like the barges that 
navigate the Tiber, and the sea-monster that swal- 
lows the recreant prophet is like that which menaced 
Andromeda. ' 

Christianity thus preserved amid the wreck of an- 
cient civilization .some germs of classic art, over 
which she brooded till they quickened under the more 
genial influences of later times. She became thus, as 
Dr. Liibke remarks, the mediator between the antique 
heathen life and the art of modern Christendom. That 
distinguished critic, Raoul-Rochette, has, however, at- 
tributed to pagan types too great an influence on the 
art of the Catacombs, and almost denies the latter all 
originality or distinctiveness of treatment; and he is 
certainly quite in error in speaking of the almost pagan 
physiognomy of the decorations of the Catacombs.* 
He was misled in forming these opinions in part by cer- 
tain monuments in the Catacomb of Praetextatus, dis- 
covered and described by Bottari, and at first supposed 
to be of Christian origin. f This opinion, however, has 
been since refuted in an able monograph on the subject 
by Padre Garrucci. \ 

The exceptional and unique character of these mon- 
uments deserves a somewhat detailed examination. 
They occur in a gallery of the Catacomb, not far from 
jthe Appian Way. In the vault of an arcosolium is a 
representation of Venus — a subject never found in early 

* " La physionomie presque payenne qui offre le decoration des 
Catacombes de Rome." — Discours Sur V ' origine des types imitatifs 
de PArt du Christianisme. Paris, 1834, p. 96. 

f Sculture e pitture sagre, etc., t. iii, pp. 193, 218. 

\ Le Mystkre de Syncretisme Phrygien dans les Catacombes Roman 
de Pretextat. (Nouvelle Interpretation.) Paris, 1854. 



Early Christian Art. 215 

Christian art — accompanied by two genii as infants. 
Near these are the following epitaphs of a pagan priest 
and his wife : 

NVMENIS ANTISTES SEBASIS VINCENTIVS HIC [EST] 
QVI SACRA SANCTA DEVM PIA MENTE CO[LVIT]. 

Here lies Vincentius, a priest of the deity Sebasis, who with pious 
mind has observed the sacred rites of the gods. 

VINCENTI HOC OLIM FREQVENTES QVOD VIDES * 
PLVRES ME ANTECESSERVNT OMNES EXPECTO 
MANDVCA BIBE LVDE ET VENI AD ME 
CVM VIVES BENEFAC HOC TECVM FERES. 

O Vincentius, many formerly in crowds, as you here see, have gone 
before me ; I await all. Eat, drink, play, and come to me. While 
thou livest act well : this thou shalt bear with thee. 

The arcosolium to which this is attached contains the 
remarkable paintings represented in the accompanying 
engraving.f The first picture to the left represents the 
death of Vibia, wife of Vincentius, and is labeled ab- 
reptio • vibies • et • descensio. She is depicted as being 
borne off by Pluto, to indicate that her death was pre- 
mature. The god is standing upright in his quadriga, 
conducted by Mercury and holding in his arms the form 
of Vibia. In the original picture, issuing from an urn at 
the foot of Mercury, is seen the river Acheron, by 
which Pluto is about to descend to the infernal regions, 
as indicated by the word descensio. 

At the top of the vault is represented the judgment of 
Vibia at the tribunal of Pluto. The god is seated on 
his throne, with his wife Proserpine, and over their heads 

* Another reading is : 

HIC ORO NE INQVETES QVOT VIDES 

f Fig. 31, from Perret, torn, i, planche lx. The description in the 
text is translated from his account, founded on Garrucci. See also 
Tre sepolcri C07t pitture ed iscrizioni appartenenti alle superstizioni 
pagane del Bacco Sabazio e del Persidico Mitra. Napoli, 1852. 



2l6 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




Early Christian Art. 217 

are written the words dispater and abracvra — titles 
of the deities. To the right of the throne we see three 
fates — fata • dtvina — and to the left Vibia preceded by 
Mercur) — mercvrivs • nvntivs — and accompanied by 
Alcestis, the heroine of conjugal love. The figures all 
have their names written above their heads. 

The principal painting of the series, that in the tym- 
panum of the arch, represents the introduction of Vibia 
to the banquet of the blessed. This is shown in the 
left hand corner of the picture, and is designated indvc- 
tio • vibies. She is introduced by a youthful figure 
crowned with flowers, and holding in his hand a floral 
wreath. His name — angelvs • bonvs — the good mes- 
senger — is perhaps less an indication of Christian 
influence than of the Greek and Oriental ideas which 
have presided over the whole of these scenes. Vibia 
next appears seated at the banquet in the midst of those 
who nave been judged worthy of the recompense of the 
good — bonorvm • ivdicio • ivdicati. They are ranged 
around a crescent-shaped table formed of cushions, and 
wear festive crowns upon their heads. In the foreground 
are seen the servants. 

The fourth scene, to the extreme right of the vault, 
represents the funeral banquet in honor of Vibia. It is 
given by her husband Vincentius, who is designated by 
name, ^0 the priests of Sebasis, over whose heads are 
written the words, septe • pii • sacerdotes. All these 
paintings, not only by their inscriptions, but by their con- 
ception and treatment, demonstrate their pagan origin. 
They are not in any sense or degree Christian ; nor is 
there any reason to infer, as has been asserted, that they 
are of Gnostic execution, but decidedly the reverse. 

But how are we to account for the presence of this 
pagan monument within the limits of a Christian cem- 



218 The Catacojnbs of Rome. 

etery ? There are two things to be observed, says M 
Perret, in explanation of this circumstance. First, the 
arcosolium is not exclusively Christian in character. M. 
de Saulcy has given examples of several Jewish and 
pagan tombs in the form of arcosolia* In the second 
place, there is nothing strange in a family practising an 
oriental rite, like the worship of Mithras — which with the 
Phrygian and Isiac mysteries were widely prevalent in 
Rome in the early Christian centuries — having a private 
place of sepulture, as this seems to have been. It is 
situated near the Appian Way, from which there was 
probably a separate entrance. Near by is a pagan 
columbarium which now forms one of the entrances of 
the Catacomb, of which it seems part equally with the 
gallery containing this tomb. This space may possibly 
have been originally usurped from the Christian ceme- 
tery ; but it is more probable that the gallery and tomb 
were independently constructed, and that the fossors 
came unexpectedly upon it in their excavations. This 
conjecture is confirmed by the indications of its having 
been subsequently shut off, but the obstructions have 
long since been removed. It is impossible to admit that 
the Christians, in contempt of the sacred usages of the 
primitive ages, have commingled their sepulchres with 
those of the pagans.f 

But Christian art, though affected by pagan influ- 
ence, did not servilely follow pagan types. It intro- 
duced new forms to express new ideas, or employed 
existing forms with a new significance ; just as Chris- 
tianity itself introduced new words, or gave new mean- 
ings to old ones, not only in the classic tongues but 
in every language which it has adopted as the vehicle 
of its sublime truths. It created a cycle of symbolical 

* Voyage dans les terres bibliques, pi. 5. f Perret, i, p. 44. 



Early Christian Art. 219 

types of especial Christian significance ; and became 
more enriched and enlarged in its scope by allegorical 
representations of religious doctrine, and by illustrations 
of Old and New Testament history and miracles. But 
Christian art soon lost that freedom of treatment which 
it inherited from its classic parentage, and fell into fixed 
and conventional forms, which were endlessly reiterated. 
"Before many years," says Maitland, "the empire of 
imagination passed away, and the genius of art, with 
'torch extinct and swimming eye,' had to mourn over 
the introduction of the hieratic style which, wherever 
it has appeared throughout the world, has cramped and 
almost annihilated the inventive faculty." Like the 
hieroglyphs of Egypt and of India, or like the picture- 
writing of the lost races of Central America, though in 
a less degree, the objects of Christian art became not 
so much representative as symbolic. Individual genius 
can only struggle hopelessly with the shackles of a con- 
ventional system. From the freedom of nature it sinks 
into a servile copyism which can hardly be called art at all. 
Yet the symbols of the Catacombs, though often rude 
and uncouth, must not provoke our contempt. They 
fulfilled their purpose no less fully than the triumphs of 
art in the Camera Raphaele or the Sistine Chapel. They 
were addressed not to the external sense, nor to the 
critical taste, but to the inner eye of the soul and to 
the sublime faculty of faith. They were not mere 
representations of the outward semblances of things, 
but suggestions of eternal verities which transcend the 
limits of time and space. The rudely scratched anchor 
told of a hope that reached forward beyond this world 
and laid hold on the great realities of the world to come ; 
the dove spoke of the brooding peace of God, which 
kept the heart and the mind amid persecution and afHic- 



220 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tion with the power of an everlasting life ; and the palm 
was the symbol of the final victory over death and hell. 

When the age of persecution passed away, this child- 
like and touching simplicity of Christian art gave place 
to a more ornate character. Called from the gloomy 
vaults of the Catacombs to adorn the churches erected 
by Constantine and his successors, it gradually devel- 
oped into the many-coloured splendour of the magnificent 
frescoes and mosaics of the basilicas. It became now 
more personal and historical, and less abstract and doc- 
trinal. The technical manipulation became less under- 
stood, and the artistic conception of form more and 
more feeble, till it gradually stiffened into the immobile 
and rigid types which characterize Byzantine painting. 
It exhibited the weakness not of infancy but of decrep- 
itude, and might almost be called the last sigh of art 
till its revival after the long slumber of the Middle 
Ages. It is of importance, however, as enabling us to 
trace the development of religious error, and the intro- 
duction of unorthodox additions to Christian belief, and 
as showing the slow progress toward image worship. It 
demonstrates the non-apostolicity of certain Romish 
doctrines, the beginning of which can be here detected. 
It utters its voiceless protest against certain others 
which are sought for in vain in the places where, accord- 
ing to the Roman theory, they should certainly be found. 
Where still employed in the Catacombs, art shared the 
corruption and degradation above described. 

It is to this period that most of the condemnations 
of art, or rather of its abuse, in the writings of the 
primitive Fathers must be referred. Toward the close 
of the fourth century Augustine inveighs against the 
superstitious reverence for pictures, as well as the grow- 
ing devotion to the sepulchres, which he says the church" 



Early Christian Art. 221 

condemned and endeavoured to correct.* His contem- 
porary, Epiphanius, stigmatizes the employment of 
painting as contrary to the authority of Scripture. f 
About the same time Paulinus of Nola made use of 
biblical pictures for the instruction of the rude and 
illiterate multitude who visited the shrine of Felix. 
*' Perhaps it may be asked," he says, "for what reason, 
contrary to the common usage, I have painted this sa- 
cred dwelling with personal representations ? . . . Here 
is a crowd of rustics of imperfect faith, who cannot read, 
who before they were converted to Christ used profane 
rites, and obeyed their senses as gods. I have, there- 
fore, thought it expedient to enliven with paintings the 
whole habitation of the saint. Pictures thus traced 
with colours will perhaps inspire those rude minds with 
astonishment. Inscriptions are placed above the paint- 
ings in order that the letter may explain what- the hand 
has depicted."! 

The feeblest intelligence might rise through the raa- 

* Novi multos esse sepulchrorum et picturarum adoratores . . . 
quos et ipsa ecclesia condemnat, et tanquam malos filios corrigere 
studet. — Aug., de Morib. Eccl. Cathol., lib. i, c. 34. 
f Contra auetoritatem Scripturaram. — Epiphan., ad yohan. Hierosol, 
\ Forte requiratur, quanam ratione gerendi 
Sederit hsec nobis sententia, pingere sanctas 
Raro more domos animantibus adsimulatis. 

Turba frequentia hie est 
Rusticitas non casta fide, neque docta legendi. 
Htec adsueta diu sacris servire profanis, 
Ventre Deo, tandem convertitur advena Christo. 
Propterea visum nobis opus utile, totis 
Felicis domibus pictura illudere sancta : 
Si forte attonitas hsec per spectacula mentes 
Agrestes caperet fucata coloribus umbra, 
Quae super exprimitur titulis, ut litera monstret 
Quod manus explicuit. 

— Paulin.. De Felice Natal. Carm., ix, vv, 541, et se?. 



222 The Catacombs of Rome. 

terial to the conception of spiritual truth.* But this 
ecclesiastical employment of art speedily became the 
source of religious corruption and the object of super- 
stitious worship. At length it provoked the stern icon- 
oclasm of the Isaurian Leo and his successors, and 
was formally prohibited by the general Council of Con- 
stantinople in the eighth century. Even early in the 
fourth century the Council of Elvira, as if with a pres- 
cience of the dire result that would follow, prohibited 
the use of pictures in the churches, " lest that which 
was worshipped and adored should be painted on the 
walls." f 

The iconoclastic spirit, however, was principally 
directed against graven images, which were regarded 
as the special objects of idolatry. The earliest ex- 
amples of these have been attributed to the Gnostics, 
who so strangely blended the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity with pagan superstition. They claimed to possess 
contemporary images of Christ from the collection of 

* Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem 
Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus. — Hor., de Arte Poeticd. 

Mens hebes ad verum per materialia surgit 
Et, demersa prius, hac visa luce resurgit. 

— On doorway of St. Denis, Paris. 

During the Middle Ages much religious truth was doubtless con- 
veyed by these storied basilicas or " gospels in stone." Of St. Mark's, 
Venice, Dr. Guthrie says, " It is not more remarkable for its oriental 
splendour than for the flood of gospel truth set forth to all eyes in 
the mosaics that cover and adorn its domes and walls. ... Here the 
grand central, saving doctrine, the glory of Paul and hope of sin- 
ners, 'Jesus Christ, and him crucified,' is exhibited with wonderful 
fulness and fidelity." In A. D. 483, Pope Sixtus dedicated to the 
people of GoA—plebi Dei — the mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore at 
Rome, executed for their instruction. 

f Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur nut 
adoratur in parietibus depingatur.- -Concil. Eliba:, A. I). 305, c. 36. 



Early Christian Art. 223 

Pontius Pilate ! But doubtless, like the alleged statue 
of Christ at Caesarea Philippi, mentioned by Eusebius,* 
even if they had any reference to Our Lord at all, they 
were of much later date. According to Augustine, \ 
the Carpocratian heretics had similar images ; and Mar- 
cellina, who belonged to that sect, exhibited in the 
Gnostic church at Rome figures of Christ, Paul, Ho- 
mer, and Pythagoras. In a similarly eclectic spirit 
the emperor Alexander Severus placed among his lares 
the images of Our Lord and Abraham, with those of 
Orpheus and Apollonius.J 

Mosaic, which in classic times was used only for the 
decoration of floors, was employed in Christian art in 
the more honourable task of adorning the walls of the 
stately basilicas and churches. This intractable ma- 
terial was not adapted for the delineation of objects re- 
quiring delicacy of expression, but was admirably suited 
for representing strongly pronounced types and solemn 
figures of Christ and the saints, analogous to those in the 
stained-glass windows of gothic cathedrals and minsters. 
Hence the mosaics, and gradually all Byzantine art, stiff- 
ened into an expression of severity and gloom, filling the 
mind of the beholder with solemnity and awe.§ This 
character is still strikingly seen in the art of the Greek 

* Tovtov 6e tov avdpiavra eluova tov 'Itjoov (pipeiv eXeyov. — Hist. 
Eccles., vii, 18. 

f Sectae ipsius (Carpocrahs) fuisse traditur socia qusedam Marcel- 
Iina, qua colebat imagines Jesu et Pauli, et Homeri et Pythagorse, 
adorando incensumque ponendo. — Aug., de Hceresib., c. vii ; cf. Iren., 
advers Hceres., i, c. xxv, § 6. Rochette figures one of these Gnostic 
tessarse or amulets with a head of Christ and the wordXPlSTOS, ac- 
companied by the symbolic fish. 

% In larario suo . . . Christum, Abraham et Orpheum, et hujus- 
modi ceteros, habebat ac majorum effigies, rem divinam faciebat.— 
Lamprid., in Alex. Sever., c. xxix. 

§ Lubke, vol. i, p. 316. 



224 The Catacojnbs of Rome. 

church, especially in Russia, where there is an intense 
and superstitious reverence for pictures, known nowhere 
else. Many of the churches are completely covered 
with paintings, which are valued, not for their execution, 
for they are often hideously ugly, but as a sort of talis- 
mans on account of their supposed religious sanctity.* 
Thus art, which is the daughter of paganism, relapsing 
into the service of superstition, has corrupted, and often 
paganized, Christianity, as Solomon's heathen wives 
turned his heart from the worship of the true God to 
the practice of idolatry. Lecky attributes this degra 
dation of style to the latent Manicheism of the dark 
ages, to the monkish fear of beauty as a deadly tempta- 
tion, and to the terrible pictures of Dante, which opened 
up such an abyss of horrors to the imagination. But by 
means of this mediaeval art, imperfect, and even gro- 
tesque as it often was, would be brought vividly before 
the minds of the people of a rude and barbarous age an 
intense conception of the scenes of Christ's passion, and 
a realistic sense of the punishment of the lost. 

It will be convenient to treat the art of the Catacombs 
under the two heads of symbolical and biblical paint- 
ings, and to discuss separately the gilt glasses and other 
objects of interest found in these crypts. De Rossi 
divides the subject into symbolical, allegorical, biblical, 
and liturgical paintings ; but some of these divisions, 
as for instance, the last, assumes the whole question of 
the purport and interpretation of these pictures. 

* Stanley's Eastern Churches, passim. 



Their Symbolism. 2.2.$ 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SYMBOLISM OF THE CATACOMBS. 

Primitive Christianity was eminently congenial to re- 
ligious symbolism. Born in the East, and in the bosom 
of Judaism, which had long been familiar with this uni- 
versal oriental language, it adopted types and figures 
as its natural mode of expression. These formed the 
warp and woof of the symbolic drapery of the tabernacle 
and temple service, prefiguring the great truths of the 
Gospel. The Old Testament sparkles with mysterious 
imagery. In the sublime visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, 
and Daniel, move strange creatures of wondrous form 
and prophetic significance. In the New Testament the 
Divine Teacher conveys the loftiest lessons in para- 
bles of inimitable beauty. In the apocalyptic visions 
of St. John the language of imagery is exhausted to rep- 
resent the overthrow of Satan, the triumph of Christ, 
and the glories of the New Jerusalem. 

The primitive Christians, therefore, naturally adopted 
a similar mode of art expression for conveying religious 
instruction. They also, as a necessary precaution in 
times of persecution, concealed from the profane gaze 
of their enemies the mysteries of the faith under a veil 
of symbolism, wnich yet revealed their profoundest 
truths to the hearts of the initiated. That such disguise 
was not superfluous is shown by the recent discovery of 
a pagan caricature of the Crucifixion on a wall beneath 

the Palatine, and by the recorded desecration of the 
15 



226 The Catacombs of Rome, 

eucharistic vessels by the Apostate Julian.* To those 
who possessed the key to the " Christian hieroglyphs," 
as Raoul-Rochette has called them,f they spoke a lan- 
guage that the most unlettered as well as the learned 
could understand. What to the haughty heathen was 
an unmeaning scrawl, to the lowly believer was eloquent 
of loftiest truths and tenderest consolation. 

Although occasionally fantastic and far-fetched, this 
symbolism is generally of a profounaly religious signifi- 
cance, and often of extreme poetic beauty. In perpet- 
ual canticle of love it finds resemblances of the Divine 
Object of its devotion throughout all nature. It beholds 
beyond the shadows of time the eternal verities of the 
world to come. It is not of the earth earthy, but is 
entirely supersensual in its character, and employs ma- 
terial forms only as suggestions of the unseen and spirit- 
ual. It addresses the inner vision of the soul, and not 
the mere outer sense. Its merit consists, therefore, not 
in artistic beauty of execution, but in appositeness of 
religious significance — a test lying far too deep for the 
apprehension of the uninitiate. It is perhaps also in- 
fluenced, as Kugler remarks, in the avoidance of real- 
istic representation, by the fear which pervaded the 
primitive church of the least approach to idolatry. 

Great care must be observed, however, in the inter- 
pretation of this religious symbolism, not to strain it 
beyond its capacity or intention. It should be with- 
drawn from the sphere of theological controversy, too 

* When persecution ceased, this veil of mystery was thrown off and 
a less esoteric art employed ; but even when Christianity came forth 
victorious from the Catacombs, symbolical paintings celebrated its 
triumph upon the walls of the basilicas and baptisteries which rose in 
the great centres of population. 

f Memoire sur Ics antiquitbs Chrj&tiennes des Catacombes. (Af6»i. dt 
TArad. des hue,:, Xl/I.) 



Their Symbolism. 227 

often the battleground of religious rancour and bitter- 
ness, and relegated to that of scientific archaeology and 
dispassionate criticism. An allegorizing mind, if it has 
any theological dogma to maintain, will discover sym- 
bolical evidence in its support where it can be detected 
by no one else.* 

One of the most striking circumstances which im- 
presses an observer in traversing these silent chambers 
of the dead is the complete avoidance of all images 
of suffering and woe, or of tragic awfulness, such as 
abound in sacred art above ground. There are no 
representations of the sevenfold sorrows of the Mater 
Dolorosa, nor cadaverous Magdalens accompanied by 
eyeless skulls as a perpetual memento mori. There are 
no pictures of Christ's agony and bloody sweat, of his 
cross and passion, his death and burial ; nor of flag- 

* Sometimes this superzealous interpretation leads to absurd mis- 
takes. Aringhi devotes two folio pages to the explanation of certain 
figures which occur in the inscriptions of the Catacombs, which he 
calls representations of the human heart. He illustrates the subject 
with much sacred and profane learning, and with many quotations from 
the Scriptures, the Fathers, and classic authors. Another archaeol- 
ogist, Boldoni, suggests that the figures signify the bitterest sorrow 
of heart — dolorem cordi intimum ; and another believes them to be 
representations of a heart transpierced with a thorn, the symbol of 
profoundest grief. These mysterious figures, whose hidden meaning 
was sought with such empty toil — arcanam significationem inani la- 
bore investagarint, says De Rossi — were, however, nothing more than 
the leaf-decorations employed in both pagan and Christian inscrip- 
tions by way of punctuation ! See the following example : 



BERPIO0N pace 



Fig. 32— T j Berpius, (or Verpius.) in Peace. 



228 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ellations, tortures, and fiery pangs of martyrdom, such as 
those that harrow the soul in many of the churches and 
picture-galleries of Rome.* Only images of joy and peace 
abound on every side. These gloomy crypts are a school 
cf Christian love and gentle charity, of ennobling thoughts 
and elevating impulses. The primitive believers, in the 
midst of their manifold persecutions, rejoiced even in 
tribulation. " There is no sign of mourning," says 
d'Agincourt, " no token of resentment, no expression 
of vengeance ; all breathes of gentleness, benevolence, 
and love." " To look at the Catacombs alone," says 
Rochette, "it might be supposed that persecution had 
no victims, since Christianity has made no allusion to 
suffering." There are no symbols of sorrow, no appeals 
to the morbid sympathies of the soul, nothing that could 
cause vindictive feelings even toward the persecutors 
of the church ; only sweet pastoral scenes, fruits, flow- 
ers, palm branches and laurel crowns, lambs and doves ; 
nothing but what suggests a feeling of joyous innocence, 
as of the world's golden age. 

The use of pictorial representations appears often to 
have been a matter of necessity. Many of the Chris- 
tians could understand no other written language. 
Numerous inscriptions, by the extreme ignorance mani- 

* See especially the church of S. Stefano Rotondo, where is a chron- 
ological series of martyrdoms, represented in all their direst horrors, 
from the crucifixion of Our Lord to the reign of Julian. Among 
other grotesqueries is a picture of St. Dionysius walking in full epis- 
copal robes at the head of a procession, holding his head, streaming 
with blood, in his hands ! 

The desire to find martyrs has led over-zealous antiquarians to dis- 
cover instruments of torture in the implements of trade commonly 
represented on the gravestones of the Catacombs. The adz and saw 
of the carpenter are made to do duty in some sensational tale of chop- 
ping and sawing of a Christian sufferer, and the baker's corn measure 
is transformed into a martyr's fiery furnace. 



Their Symbolism. 229 

fested — the wretched execution, grammar, and spelling 
— show the lowly and unlettered condition of those who 
affixed them to the walls.* The relatives of the de- 
ceased would naturally desire some token by which they 
might recognize, in that vast and monotonous labyrinth 
of graves, the tomb of their departed friend. To those 
ignorant of letters an inscription would but ill subserve 
this purpose. Hence we often find some pictorial repre- 
sentation, either with or without an accompanying 
inscription, on the tomb. These were sometimes rude 
figures having a phonetic correspondence to the name 
of the deceased, and sometimes the emblems of his 
trade. Of the former kind are the following examples 
copied from the walls of the Lapidarian Gallery : 

PONTIVS • LEO • SE • BIVO • FECIT ■ SIBI 
ET PONTIA • MAZA • COZVS • VZVS. (sic.) 
FECERVNT • FILIO • SVO • APOLLINARI • BENE 
MERENTI • 




" Pontius Leo made this for himself while living. He and his wife 
Pontia Maxima made this for their well-deserving son, Apollinaris." 
Fig. 33.— Phonetic Symbol. 

The friends of Leo were probably unable to read this 
inscription, whose atrocious latinity betrays the igno- 
rance of the mason by whom it was executed, and there- 
fore had engraved upon the stone the rude outline of a 
lion, the symbol of his proper name. 

Another slab bears the outline of a little pig, the picto- 
rial translation of the somewhat singular name Porcella 
* See Figs. 122 to 128, and context. 



230 The Catacombs of Rome. 

It was, perhaps, a term of endearment, like the obsolete 
English " Pigsney." 

PORCELLA HIC DORMIT IN P • 
Q- VIXIT ANN • III • M • X • D • XIII • 




" Here sleeps Porcella in peace. She lived three years, ten months, 
and thirteen days." 

Fig. 34— Phonetic Symbol. 

In like manner the tombs of Dracontius, Vitulus, and 
Onager, bear respectively a dragon, a steer, and an ass, 
the phonetic synonymes of these names. These figures 
may in some cases be a mere pictorial paronomasia, but 
the explanation above suggested is the more probable 
one. In the following example this is almost asserted : 

NABIRA IN PACE ANIMA DVLCIS 

QVI VIXIT ANOS XVI • M • V • 

ANIMA MELEIEA 

TITVLV FACTV 

APARENTES SIGNVM NABE. [sic] 

" Navira in peace ; a sweet soul, who lived sixteen years and five 
months ; a soul sweet as honey ; this epitaph was made by her 
parents. The sign, a ship." 

Fig. 35— Phonetic Symbol. 

More frequently the figures had reference to the trade 
or occupation of the deceased, as in the following epi- 
taph, probably of a wool-comber, found by Dr. Mait- 
land built into the wall of the Piazzo di Spagna, in 
Rome. Many important funeral tablets, both Christian 
and pagan, have been thus employed for the commonest 




Their Symbolism. 



purposes. The objects in the engraving are probably 
the shears, comb, ladle, and an unknown instrument 
used for cleansing wool. 




" To Veneria, in peace." 
Fig. 36— Wool-Comber's Implements. 

The following, from the Lapidarian Gallery, indicates 
the trade of a carpenter. The saw and adz are very 
like those now employed : 

BAVTO ET MAXIMA SE VIVI 
FECERVNT. 




To Bautus and Maxima. They made this during their lifetime.' 
Fig\ 37— Carpenter's Tools. 



2^2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

On another slab is a figure, probably of a vine-dresser 
in a short Roman tunic, standing near a wine cask, the 
symbol of his occupation. He appears to be starting 
to the field with his mattock on his shoulder, and in his 
hand is a wallet containing, perhaps, the provision for 
the day. 

GAVDENTIO FECERVM FRATRI 
QVI VICSIC ANNIS XXVIII • M • VIII • D • XVII 




" To Gaudentius. His brothers made this. He lived twenty-eight 
years, eight months, seventeen days." 

Pig. 38.— A Vine-Dresser's Tomb. 

In the Catacomb of St. Agnes is a fresco of husband- 
men carrying a wine butt on their shoulders, the mean- 
ing of which is probably the same. Mr. Hemans rather 
fantastically interprets this symbol as implying concord, 
or the union of the faithful bound together by sacred 
ties, as the staves of the cask are by its hoops.* Mait- 
land translates it as standing for a proper name. We 
have seen examples representing fossors at work,f and 
Fabretti figures the slab of a sculptor, exhibiting the man- 
ufacture of sarcophagi. Other examples occur, in which 
* Sac. Art, p. 43. f Ficjs. 23, 2d. 



Their Symbolism. 233 

the fuller's tomb is indicated by mallets, the shoemaker's 
by shoes or lasts, the baker's by loaves, the wood-feller's 
by an axe, the grocer's by scales, and the like, although 
the meaning of some of these figures is questioned. 
Didron, however, presses this interpretation of these 
symbols much too far, making the dove, fish, anchor, 
and sheep, only the emblems of the occupation of the 
fowler, fisherman, sailor, and shepherd, respectively, 
thus doing violence to the acknowledged canons of 
epigraphic criticism to be presently indicated.* 

But by far the larger proportion of these symbols have 
a religious significance, and refer to the peace and joy 
of the Christian, and to the holy hopes of a life beyond 
the grave ; and many of them were derived directly from 
the language of Scripture. They were often of a very 
simple and rudimentary character, such as could be 
easily scratched with a trowel on the moist plaster, 
or traced upon the stone. They were sometimes, how- 
ever, elaborately represented in excellent frescoes or 
sculpture. 

* Such symbols were not peculiar to Christian tombs. There were 
many pagan examples of a similar character. Thus a cultrarius, or 
cutler, has knives \a.pullarius, or poulterer, a cage or coop of chickens ; 
a tabellarius, and postman, a writing case ; and a marmorarius, or 
mason, a mallet and chisel, on his tomb. Sometimes a shop, with 
customers bargaining, is shown. A bag or purse signifies an agent ; 
money, a banker ; and the like. The ascia or axe, so common on 
Roman tombs, probably represents a sacrificial instrument. Anal- 
ogous to these are the sphere and cylinder engraven on the tomb of 
Archimedes, and the square and compasses on modern masonic mon- 
uments. In the Armenian cemeteries a hammer, trowel, last, scales, 
and shears, indicate the grave of a carpenter, mason, shoemaker, 
grocer, or tailor. In the Cemetery de l'Est, at Paris, animals act- 
ing mark the tomb of the French fabulist, La Fontaine ; masks, that 
of Moliere ; a palette or brushes, that of a painter. See also the 
naval and military trophies on the tombs of many distinguished 
sailors and soldiers. 



^34 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



The beautiful allusion of St. Paul to the Christian's 
hope as the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, 
is frequently represented in the Catacombs by the out- 
line of an anchor, often rudely drawn, but eloquent with 
profoundest meaning to the mind. of the believer. It 
assured the storm-tossed voyager on life's rough sea 
that, while the anchor of his hope was cast " within the 
veil," his life-bark would outride the fiercest blasts and 
wildest waves of persecution, and at last glide safely 
into the haven of everlasting rest. This allusion is 
made more apparent when it is observed how often it is 
found on the tombstones of those who bear the name 
Hope, in its Greek or Latin 
form, as EAIIIC, EAITIAIOC, 
SPES,etc. In the accompany- 
ing example it is displayed on 
a Christian patera. This sym- 
bol is not unknown in classic 
art. It occurs on a ring from 
Pompeii, in the Museum of 
Naples, with the word EAIIIC, 
Hope. Fig. 39— Symbolical Anchor. 

Of kindred significance with this is the symbol of a 
ship, which may also refer to the soul seeking a country 
out of sight, as the ship steers to a land beyond the hori- 
zon. Sometimes it may be regarded as a type of the 
church ; and in later times it is represented as steered 
by St. Peter and St. Paul* The symbol of " the heaven- 




* Fig. 112. This symbol is designated by modern Italians La 
Navicella di San Pietro — the Bark of St. Peter. From the fan- 
cied resemblance of the body of the church to a ship, or from 
the above allusion, the word nave, applied to that part, has been 
derived as if from navis, a ship. May it not possibly be from v«6f. 
a temple ? 



Their Symbolism. 



235 




bound ship " — fj vavg ovgaodgaiiovaa — is mentioned by 
Clement of Alexandria as being in vogue in the second 
century. This figure was used also in pagan art as an 

emblem of the 
close of life, and 
may still be seen 
carved on a tomb 
near the Nea- 
politan Gate of 
Pompeii. In the 
Catacombs the 
execution of the 
symbol is often 
Fig. 40— Symbolical Ship. exceedingly 

rude, the design being apparently copied from the 
clumsy barges of the Tiber. The mast and yard some- 
times present a vague imitation of the cross.* The ac- 
companying figure is from the Lapidarian Gallery of 
the Vatic an. f 

The palm and crown are symbols that frequently 
occur, often in a very rude form. Although common 
also to Jewish \ and pagan art, they have received in 
Christian symbolism a loftier significance than they ever 
possessed before. They call to mind that great multitude 

* " Arbor qusedam in navi," says St. Ambrose, " est crux in ecclesia." 
f Compare the following beautiful passage from Tertullian, in which 
the metaphor is elaborately carried out : " Amid the reefs and inlets, 
amid the shallows and straits of idolatry, Faith, her sails filled with the 
Spirit of God, navigates ; safe, if cautious, secure, if intently watch- 
ful. But to such as are washed overboard is a deep, whence is no out- 
swimming ; to such as run aground is inextricable shipwreck ; to such 
as are engulfed is a whirlpool, where there is no breathing in idol- 
atry. All its waves suffocate ; every eddy drags down to Hades. — De 
Idol., c. 24. 

\ Compare 2 Esdras ii, 44, 45. See ante, Fig. 18. The palm ap- 
pears on the coins of Simon Barchocab. 



236 The Catacombs of Rome. 

whom no man can number, with whom Faith sees the dear 
departed walk in white, bearing palms in their hands. 
The crown is not the wreath of ivy or of laurel, of 
parsley or of bay, the coveted reward of the ancient 
games ; nor the chaplet of earthly revelry, which, placed 
upon the heated brow, soon fell in withered garlands to 
the feet; but the crown of life, starry and unwithering, 
the immortal wreath of glory which the saints shall wear 
forever at the marriage supper of the Lamb. They are 
the emblems of victory over the latest foe, the assurance 

that 

The straggle and grief are all past ; 
The glory and worth live on. 

The palm and crown conjoined, the latter encircling 
the sacred monogram, are represented in the accompa- 
nying example from a slab in the Vatican Library. 




Fig. 41.— Symbolical Palm and Crown. 

The palm has also been claimed, but, as we shall see, 
without any warrant whatever, as the emblem of the 
martyrs and the designation of their tombs. 

One of the most beautiful symbols of the Catacombs 
is the dove, the perpetual synonym of peace. Indeed, 
that word is frequently annexed to the figure as if to 
show more distinctly its meaning, as in Figs. 42 and 43.* 
The innocence and purity of the dove make it an ap- 
propriate emblem of the souls of departed Christians, 
soaring beyond the defilements of earth to the peaceful 

* See also Figs. 15, 77, and 82. The figures are often very con- 
ventional, and look more like geese or ducks than doves. 



Their Symbolism. 



237 



blessedness of heaven.* It is, therefore, in allusion to 
this thought sometimes accompanied by the words, 
anima innocens, anima simplex — "innocent soul," "sim- 
ple soul." Perhaps there may be also a reference to 
the admonition of Our Lord, " Be ye, therefore, . . . 
harmless as doves." The gentleness and tender affec- 
tion of these beautiful birds make them an emblem of 
endearment in every age, as is strikingly seen in the 
frequent allusions of the matchless Song of Songs. It 
may, therefore, be often employed in the Catacombs with 
reference to the domestic virtues of the deceased, and 
to the mutual constancy of husband and wife. The 
expression, palumbus sine felle — " a dove without gall " — 
is often applied in Christian epitaphs to the departed, 
especially in its diminutive form — palumbulus sine felle — 
on the tombs of little children, as if the bereaved parents 
presented their babes to the Lord, like the turtle-doves 
and young pigeons of the ancient Jewish offering of 
infant consecration. 




" In the Peace of God." 
Fig. 42.— Symbolical Doves. 

The dove generally bears in its beak or claws an olive 
branch, the sign of the assuaging of the waters of Divine 
-i engeance from the face of the earth. (See Fig. 43.) It 

* See Psa. lxviii, 13. In Mediaeval art the soul is represented is- 
suing from the mouth of the dying or flying through the air in the 
form of a dove. One example bears the inscription — anima: inter- 
fsctorum — the souls of the slain. 



238 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



is, then, as Tertullian expresses it, " the herald of the 
peace of God." 




PAX 




Fig. 43— Symbolical Dove. Fig. 44.— Doves and Vase. 

Sometimes it is seen drinking out of a vase, or peck- 
ing at grapes or olive berries, a symbol of the soul's 
enjoyment of the fruits and refreshing draughts of par- 
adise.* (See Figs. 44 and 45.) As seen sitting on the 
arms of the cross,f the dove is an appropriate symbol 
of the peace with God purchased by the death of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ. The dove in a cage may imply the 



IpcYSPKIMI j$ 




" The place of Primus." 
Fig. 45— Dove Eating Olive Berries. 



* See the common epigraphic expression, ME EN 0E£2 — " Drink in 
God," and the language of Augustine concerning a deceased friend — 
" Jam ponit spirituale os ad fontem tuum, Domine, et bibit quantum 
potest." — Con., ix, 3. 

•j- See Figs. 60 and 106. " The doves which perch upon the cross," 
says Paulinus, " show that the kingdom of God is open to the simple " — 
Quaeque super signum resident cseleste columbae 
Simplicibus produnt regna patere Dei. 



Their Symbolism. 239 

faithful under persecution, or the soul imprisoned in 
the body. 

The dove was also used in the Catacombs as the sym- 
bol of the Holy Spirit in representations of the baptism 
of Our Lord, and is described by Paulinus as similarly 
employed in the church of Nola.* Tertullian \ applies 
toward thv. ecclesiastical edifice the expression, columb<z 
domus — " house of the dove " — possibly, however, with 
reference to the dove-like religion and character of the 
Christians. In Mediaeval art the Holy Spirit, under 
the form of a dove wearing a cruciform nimbus, the 
symbol of divinity, is represented brooding over the face 
of the waters of primeval chaos, inspiring the prophets 
and saints, and even nailed to the cross above the cruci 
fied body of Our Lord. This sacred emblem of the 
Paraclete, the Divine Comforter, by a monstrous viola- 
tion of propriety was emblazoned upon battle-flags, and 
the Holy Name given to a military order and to ships 
of war.J 

* Per columbam Spiritus Sanctus fluit. — Ep. ad Sever. 

\ Contra Valentin., c. iii. Sometimes a gold or silver dove was 
placed over the altar, (Bing., viii, 6, § 19,) as is still occasionally seen 
even in Protestant churches. In the Middle Ages churches and abbeys 
were named from this symbol, as Santa Columba and Sainte Colombe, 
the church of the Holy Dove. They were also dedicated to the Holy 
Ghost under the title of Saint Paraclete, Santo Spirito, and Saint 
Esprit. 

% According to an apocryphal Gospel, the Holy Ghost under the 
form of a dove designated Joseph as the spouse of the Virgin Mary 
by lighting on his head ; and in the same manner, says Eusebius, (vi. 
29,) was Fabian indicated as the divinely appointed bishop of Rome. 
According to a singular legend, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove 
was present at the Council of Nice, and signed the creed that was 
there framed. In the Arthurian legend a snowy dove accompanied 
the apparition of the Holy Grail. In the fifteenth century a pigeon 
which lighted on the tent of Edward III., at Calais, was thought to be a 
manifestation of the Holy Ghost. (Mimoires de Phil, de Commines 



240 The Catacombs of Rome. 

This emblem was also used in pagan art. The light- 
winged coursers who drew the airy chariot of Venus 
were doves. From the oaks of Dodona doves uttered 
oracles of the future. A dove was also the celestial 
messenger of Mahomet. The olive, too, was sacred to 
Minerva, and as the symbol of peace was woven into the 
victor's crown. 

Other pagan types were employed, but with a new and 
nobler Christian significance. Thus the peacock, the 
proud bird of Juno, frequently appears fti the Cata- 
combs, not as the symbol of the all-seeing eye of God, 
in imitation of the pagan myth of the hundred eyes of 
Argus, but as the emblem of immortality.* Associated 
.in meaning and frequent- 
ly confounded in form 
with the peacock was the 
phoenix, the marvellous 
story of whose rejuvenes- 
cence from the ashes ofits 
funeral pyre Clement of 
Rome recounts with un- 
faltering faith.f Lactan- 
tius makes it the theme 

of an elaborate poem,J 

, ™ . ,,. ., .. Fig. 46— Symbolical Peacock, 
and Tertulhan cites it as 

a striking illustration of the resurrection of the 
dead. § It was also considered a type of the new 
birth and of eternal felicity. The cock, generally as- 
sociated with St. Peter, || is interpreted as the symbol 

iv, IO.) Seven doves hovering around the head of Our Lord or the 
Virgin Mary symbolize, in Mediaeval art, the seven-fold gifts of the 
Spirit. 

* See Figs. 46, 89. f Ep. ad Corinth., § 25. % De Phcenice. 

§ De Resume. Cam., c. 13. \ See Fig. 102 




Their Symbolism. 241 

uf unsleeping vigilance ; it is, perhaps, also an emblem 
or suggestion of the remorse of the apostle for his 
denial of his Lord. 

Another adaptation of classic symbolism is the employ- 
ment of the stag, the attribute of Diana, as the emblem of 
the Christian thirsting after the living waters. It is gener- 
ally represented drinking at a stream, probably in allusion 
to the Psalmist's panting after God as the hart after the 
water-brooks.* The hare sometimes occurs, an appro- 
priate type of the persecution of the Christians, hunted 
amid those secret burrows in the earth like rabbits in 
their warrens. The horse is interpreted as symbolizing 
eagerness or speed in running the Christian race, or, per- 
haps, the course of life happily accomplished ;t and the 
lion, fortitude of soul, or, from the notion that he slept 
with open eyes, vigilance against the snares of sin. % It 
is remarkable that the dog, a pagan symbol of fidelity, 

* Psa. xlii, 1. See Fig. 132. f See Fig. 115. 

% In later art this figure is used as an emblem of the Lion of the 
tribe of Judah, and is sometimes represented as opening the apoca- 
lyptic book with seven seals. The four living creatures of John's 
vision, (chap, iv, 6, 7,) the lion, calf or ox, eagle, and man or angel, 
and the tetramorph figure of that of Ezekiel, (chap, i, ver. 10,) became 
symbols of the four evangelists, and also of Christ. 

In mediaeval art uncouth and grotesque figures — " Gorgons and 
hydras and chimeras dire" — took the place of the bright and 
genial symbols of the Catacombs. To the terrified imagination 
of the age all nature swarmed with malignant and demoniac be- 
ings, which were bodied forth in the dragons and griffins, and mon- 
strous forms and faces that haunt the gothic minsters and abbeys, es- 
pecially in the northern countries of Europe, where the savageness of 
nature is reflected in the weirdness of art. Yet even in its distorted 
grotesqueness, this art proved its moral superiority to the gay and joy- 
ous spirit of heathenism. The intense consciousness of sin and evil, 
and of the mortal struggle of the human soul with the powers of dark- 
ness which it manifested, is essentially nobler than the frivolous sen- 
sualism of ancient art and life, without hope or fear of the future. 
16 



242 The Catacombs of Rome. 

never occurs except as accessory in hunting scenes of 
manifestly heathen type ; probably on account of the 
abhorrence of this, to them, unclean beast, by the Jews, 
who so largely impressed their characteristics on Chris- 
tian thought and feeling.* The serpent, a common 
pagan symbol, and with the cock the attribute of y£scu- 
lapius, nowhere appears but in the scene of the temp 
tation of Eve by the " Old Serpent, the Devil." 

The vine is an appropriate symbol of the intimate 
union of the believer and Christ, and the olive tree of 
a life fruitful in good deeds, or of the church, in whose 
sheltering arms all souls may find rest, as the fowls of 
the air in the boughs of a tree. Flowers and fruits may 
be the emblems of future beatitude ; and a loaf, of the 
bread of life or of the holy eucharist. The fountain is 
a type of the living waters, and the lyre, of the influence 
of the Divine Orpheus. The lamp and the light-house 
are the emblems of spiritual illumination through the 
gospel. The balance may refer to the just dealing of 
the deceased, or perhaps to the final judgment and the 
Eastern notion of psychostasy.f The house probably 
indicates the tabernacle of the body, or perhaps the 
last long home of the grave, or the house not made with 
hands on high. Most of the symbols, however, refer 
to the person and work of Christ, as the central and 

* See Job xxx, 1 ; Psa. xxii, 16 ; Matt, vii, 6 ; Phil, iii, 2 ; Rev. xxii, 15. 

f Compare the prophecy of Belshazzar's doom — Dan. v, 27. To 
this the weighing of the fates of Achilles and Hector in the Iliad is 
analogous. (McCaul, 49.) Several of these symbols are often associ- 
ated together. Thus, on a slab bearing date A. D. 400, are crowded 
the Constantinian monogram, the balance, mummy, candelabrum with 
seven lights, a house, and fish. On a marble ambo at Ravenna are 
six series, ten in each, of sheep, peacocks, doves, stags, ducks, and 
fishes. Whether symbolical or not, the selection is a remarkable 
parallel to many of the figuresof the Catacombs. 



Their Symbolism. 243 

dominating idea of the church of the Catacombs. 
Some of these are of such importance and of so 
frequent occurrence as to demand a more detailed 
examination. 

One of the most striking and beautiful of these sym- 
bols is that which represents Christ as the Good 
Shepherd, and believers as the sheep of his fold. While 
the doves, as we have seen, may be regarded as emblem- 
atic of the beatified spirits of the departed, the sheep 
more appropriately symbolize those who, still in the 
flesh, go in and out and find pasture. Suggesting the 
thought of that sweet Hebrew idyl* of which the world 
will never grow tired ; which, lisped by the pallid lips 
of the dying throughout the ages, has strengthened their 
hearts as they entered the dark valley ; and to which 
Our Lord lent a deeper pathos by the tender parable 
of the lost sheep — small wonder that it was a favourite 
type of that unwearying love that sought the erring and 
the outcast and brought them to his fold again. With 
reiterated and manifold treatment the tender story is 
repeated over and over again, making the gloomy crypts 
bright with scenes of idyllic beauty, and hallowed with 
sacred associations. 

This symbol very happily sets forth the entire scope 
of Christian doctrine. It illustrates the sweet pastoral 
representations of man's relationship to the Shepherd 
of Israel who leadeth Joseph like a flock,f and his in- 
dividual dependence upon him who is the Shepherd and 
Bishop of all souls. % But it especially illustrates the 
character and office of Our Lord, and the many passage? 
of Scripture in which he represents himself as the 
Good Shepherd, who forsook his eternal throne to seek 
through this wilderness-world the lost and wandering 

* Psa. xxiii. f Psa. bocx, I. \ I Pet. ii, 25. 



244 The Catacombs of Rjme. 

sheep, to save whom he gave his life that he might bring 
them to the evergreen pastures of heaven. 

This subject undergoes every possible variety of treat- 
ment and is endlessly repeated — rudely scratched on 
funeral slabs, elaborately sculptured on sarcophagi, 
moulded on lamps and vases, graven on seals and rings, 
traced in gold on glass, and painted in fresco, generally 
in the most prominent and honourable position, in the 
vaulting of the chambers and tympana of the arcosolia* 
The Good Shepherd is generally represented as a youth- 
ful beardless figure in a short Roman tunic and buskins, 
bearing tenderly the lost sheep which he has found and 
laid upon his shoulders with rejoicing. This is evidently 
not a personal image, but an allegorical representation 
of the " Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep." 
He is generally surrounded, as in Fig. 47, by a group 
of fleecy followers, whose action and attitude indicate 
the disposition of soul and manner of hearing the 
word. Some are listening earnestly; others are more 
intent on cropping the herbage at their feet, the types 
of those occupied with the cares and pleasures and 
riches of this world. A truant ram is turning heedlessly 
away, as if refusing to listen ; and often a gentle ewe 
nestles fondly at the shepherd's feet or tenderly caresses 
his hand. An early Christian writer, contemporary with 
this primitive art, furnishes an interpretation of these 
pictures. He compares the poor of this world to sheep 
in a barren desert ; finding no allurements here below, 
they seek after those things which are above. The rich, 
on the contrary, are like sheep in a pleasant pasture, with 
heads and hearts always intent on the things of earth. 
Frequently a shower of rain, or of water from a rock — 
the emblem of the dews of grace or the waters of sal- 
* See Fig. 105. 



Their Symbolism. 245 

vation — falls, abundantly on the listening sheep, scantily 
on those that are feeding, not at all on the one that is 
turning away. 




Fig. 47.— The Good Shepherd. 

Sometimes the sheep appears to nestle with an ex- 
pression of human tenderness and love on the shep- 
herd's shoulders ; in other examples it is more or less 
firmly held with one or both hands, as if to prevent its 
escape. In a few instances the fold is seen in the back- 
ground, which seems to complete the allegory. Fre- 
quently the shepherd carries a staff or crook in his 
hand, on which he sometimes leans, as if weary beneath 
his burden. He is sometimes even represented sitting 
on a mound, as if overcome with fatigue, thus recalling 
the pathetic words of the Dies Ires : 
Quaerens me sedisti lassus. 

Occasionally he is represented with a musical instru- 
ment, like the classical syrinx or Pan's-pipe, in his hand, 
as in Fig. 48, as if to indicate the sweet persuasive in- 
fluence of his word. In allusion to this thought Greg- 
ory Nazianzen remarks, " The Good Shepherd will at 
one time give his sheep rest, and at another time lead 



246 The Catacombs of Rome. 

and direct them, with his staff seldom, more generally 
with his pipe." In a fresco in the Catacomb of St. 
Agnes the shepherd's tenderness and pity are contrasted 
with the mercenary harshness of the hireling who careth 
not for the sheep, and who rudely seizes by the leg one 
that struggles to get free, while the Good Shepherd 
merely calls his sheep, and they hear his voice and fol- 
low him. Sometimes an Orpheus, to whose lyre the 
sheep seem to listen with pleased attention, takes the 
place of the Good Shepherd. 




Fig. 48— Good Shepherd with Syrinx. 

Sometimes the shepherd is represented as leading o 
bearing on his shoulders a kid or goat instead of a sheej 
or lamb. This apparent solecism has been thought a 
careless imitation of pagan figures of the sylvan deity 
Pan, who frequently appears in art in this manner. It 
is more probable, however, that it was an intentional 
departure from the usual type, as if to illustrate the 



Their Symbolism. 247 

words of Our Lord, " I am not come to call the right- 
eous, but sinners to repentance," and to indicate his 
tenderness toward the fallen, rejoicing more over the lost 
sheep that was found than over the ninety and nine that 
went not astray. It was also, probably, designed as a 
protest against the rigour of the Novatians in refusing 
reconciliation to penitent apostates. Sometimes Our 
Lord, thus symbolically represented, is accompanied by 
one or more of his disciples, as under-shepherds to 
whom is given command to feed the flock of Christ, over 
which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers. 

In the Catacomb of St. Agnes is a remarkable fresco 
of a lamb between two wolves, over which is written 
the word seniores, evidently an allegorical representa- 
tion of the story of Susanna and the elders, and in 
mystic form an image of the church surrounded by per- 
secution, or an illustration of the words of Our Lord, 
" Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of 
wolves." 

The figure of the Good Shepherd has been a favourite 
symbol in every age, and was common in pagan art. 
Mercury was worshipped under the name Criophorus, 
or the Ram-bearer, and was thus represented in paint- 
ing and statuary.* More frequently the god Pan appears 
under that figure, generally bearing in his hand the sim- 
ple instrument to which he has given his name. The 
Roman poets employ this sweet pastoral image in their 
beautiful eclogues f to illustrate the shepherd's tender 
care for his flock, gently bearing the lambs in his arms 
or on his shoulders, recalling the inspired language in 
which Isaiah depicts the Almighty's loving-kindness to- 
ward his people. \ From this outward resemblance be- 

* Pausanias, lib. x. 

f Tibullus, Eleg., ii, n, 12 ; Calpurn., Ec'og., v,3g. % Isa - xl > Ir - 



248 The Cata^jmbs of Rome. 

tween the pagan and Christian themes, Raoul-Rochette 
has imagined that the frescoes of the Catacombs were 
careless imitations of the heathen type, overlooking 
their distinctively Christian interpretation. But the 
naked fauns dancing with the nymphs of pagan art, as 
in the tomb of the Nasos, are infinitely removed from 
the sweet and tender grace of the Christian " Pastor 
Bonus." Tertullian, in the second century, speaks of 
chalices on which were paintings of the Good Shepherd 
and the lost sheep.* Eusebius says that Constantine 
placed a statue of this subject in the forum of Constan- 
tinople. It also appears in mosaic at Ravenna, A. D. 
440, and in a Catacomb at Cyrene in Africa.f 

But Our Lord is sometimes represented as a lamb in- 
stead of a shepherd. % Indeed, this symbol is no less 

* Patrocinabitur Pastor, quem in calice depingitis. A parabolis lice- 
bit incipias, ubi est ovis perdita, a Domino requisita et humeris ejus 
revecta. — De PuJicit, ii and x. 

f The later Christian poets also celebrated this tender theme. In 
lines whose lyric cadence charm the ear like a shepherd's pipe 
Thomas Aquinas sings : 

Bone Pastor, panis vere, Tu qui cuncta scis et vales, 

Jesu, nostri miserere, Qui nos pascis hie mortales 

Tu nos pasce, nos tuere ; Tuos ibi commensales 

Tu nos bona fac videre, Cohseredes et sodales 
In terra viventium. Fac sanctorum civium. 

Another Mediaeval hymn runs sweetly thus : 

Jesu dulcissime, e throno gloriae 
Ovem deperditam venisti quserere ! 
Jesu suavissime, pastor fidissime, 
Ad te O trahe me, ut semper sequar te ! 

\ In a distich accompanying an Agnzis Dei in the church of St 
Pudentiana at Rome, both characters are ascribed to Our Lord : 

Hie agnus mundum restaurat sanguine lapsum, 
Mbrtuus et vivus idem sum, pastor et agnus. 



Their Symbolism. 



249 



appropriate than the one just considered, and has 
equally the sanction of Scripture. The manifold sacri- 
fices of the tabernacle and temple all pointed to the 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the true 
Passover of mankind. The immaculate purity, gentle- 
ness, and divine affection of the Redeemer, and his 
patience under affliction and persecution, make this 
beautiful symbol an appropriate type of his innocence 
and sufferings as he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, 
and, as a sheep dumb before its shearers, opened not 
his mouth.* In the devout recognition of Our Lord by 
John the Baptist,f and in the sublime visions of the 
Apocalypse, J he is thus fig- 
uratively represented ; and to 
this divine Lamb is chanted 
evermore the song of praise 
and honour and thanksgiv- 
ing^ 

In the accompanying en- 
graving from a sarcophagus 
in the Lateran, of the fourth 
or fifth century, the lamb, 
wearing the nimbus in which 
are inscribed the sacred mon- 
ogram and the letters Al- 
pha and Omega, the emblems 
of divinity, is standing upon 




" This Lamb restores the lost world with his blood. Dead and living, 
I am but one ; I am at once the Shepherd and the Lamb." 

Paulinus beautifully says : " The same Lamb and Shepherd rules us 
in the world who from wolves has made us lambs. He is now the 
Shepherd of those sheep for whom he was once the victim Lamb." 
— Efiis. iii, ad Fhrent. 

* Isa. liii, 7. f John i, 19. % Rev. v, 6. § Ibid., v. 12. 



250 The Catacombs of Rome. 

a. hillock, perhaps intended for Mount Zion,* from 
which flow four streams, probably the " river of water of 
life, . . . proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb," and dividing toward the four quarters of the earth. 
These streams are also variously interpreted as signi- 
fying the four evangelists., and the four rivers of para- 
dise, f On a sarcophagus of later date Our Lord is 
represented in human form with, a scroll in his hand, 
standing on a mound from which the four mystical 
rivers flow, and by his side a lamb bearing a Latin 
cross on its head. On either side are lambs, personi- 
fications of the apostles, to whom he is giving the 
final commission to preach in all lands the gospel con- 
tained in the scroll which he holds, and to baptize 
with the sacred waters at their feet. Sometimes 
twelve lambs are represented approaching one in 
the centre, as in frescoes in St. Clement's at Rome, and 
at Ravenna. On a gilt glass patera in the Vatican Li- 
brary the lambs are seen to issue from Jerusalem and 
Bethlehem, as indicated by their names written above, 
and to approach Mount Zion, from which flow the 
four evangelical streams united in the mystical Jordan. 
This is perhaps emblematic of the twelve tribes, or 
of the gentiles coming from the east and west to drink 
of the water of life. Paulinus describes a mosaic in 

* " And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion." — Rev. 
xiv, T. 

\ Paulinus thus describes a mosaic of this subject at Fondi, {Epis. 
xii, ad Severum :) 

Petram superstat, ipse petra ecclesiae, 
Ex qua sonori quatuor fontes meant, 
Evangelists, viva Christi flumina. 

" Standing upon a rock is He who is himself the Rock of the church, 
and from this go forth four voiceful streams, evangelists, the living riv- 
ers of Christ." 

The A^ntis Dei is still often seen on altar cloths and tombstones. 



Their Symbolism. 2 5 1 

his basilica of Fondi, where a cross symbolical of Christ 
was placed on the rock, and two flocks, of sheep and 
goats respectively, stood around it. " The shepherd 
turns away," he says, " the goats on the left, and em- 
braces with his right hand the well-deserving lambs."* 
This was perhaps the first of that series of art-presenta- 
tions of the last judgment which culminates in the tragic 
terrors of the Sistine Chapel. 

Sometimes a milk-pail is represented near a lamb, 01 
hanging on a crook by its side, or even resting on its 
back. Sometimes also it is carried by the Good Shep- 
herd. This has been magnified without due evidence 
into a symbol of the eucharist. It might more natu- 
rally be regarded as an emblem of the blessings of sal- 
vation, set forth by Isaiah under the figure of wine and 
milk, or it may refer to the soul's being fed with the 
sincere milk of the word. 

On the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus in the crypts 
of St. Peter's, of date A. D. 359, are exhibited several 
scenes from scripture history, which will be hereafter 
described. In the spandrels of the arches over these 
is a series of bas reliefs, in which lambs are naively 
shown as enacting other scriptural scenes. In one a lamb, 
the personification of Moses, strikes a rock from which the 
water bursts forth, and another receives the law from the 
hand of God. Three lambs in a fiery furnace represent 
the three Hebrew children in the furnace of Nebuchad- 
nezzar. Our Lord is symbolized by a lamb on whose 
head another, personifying John the Baptist, is pouring 

* Et quia celsa (crux) quasi judex de rape superstat, 
Bis gemmae pecudis discors agnis genus hsedi 
Circumstant solium ; lsevos avertitur hcedos 
Pastor et emeritos dextra complectitur agnos. 

— Epis. xii, ad Sulpic. Sever. 



252 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the waters of baptism, while the Holy Ghost in the form 
of a dove breathes divine grace. A lamb, the personi- 
fication of Christ, multiplies the loaves, and brings forth 
Lazarus from the grave. 

One of the most remarkable and important, in its theo- 
logical significance, of the symbols of the Catacombs 
is that of the fish. It is one of the oldest in the entire 
hieratic cycle. It is found accompanying the first dated 
inscription which bears any emblem whatever,* and 
nearly a hundred examples occur which are attributed 
to the first three centuries. It was also one of the first 
to be discontinued. During the fourth century it rap- 
idly fell into disuse, and by the beginning of the fifth 
had almost entirely disappeared from religious art.f 

The abandonment of this remarkable figure may be 
explained by its mysterious and anagrammatic charac- 
ter. It is a striking illustration of that disciplina arcana 
of the primitive church which employed signs whose 
secret meaning its heathen foes could not understand. 
When the age of persecution passed away there was no 
longer the necessity to conceal under allusions and em- 
blems, known only to the initiated, religious truths which 
were openly proclaimed on every hand. Hence this 
purely conventional sign fell into disuse. 

This symbol probably derived its origin from the fact 

*A.D. 234. De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., No. 6. (See Fig. 52.) Of 
course, there may have been many earlier whose precise date we can- 
not determine. 

•} In later art, indeed, the figure sometimes occurs on baptismal 
fonts, in mosaics, and in architecture, but probably as a mere orna- 
ment, without any religious meaning. In Byzantine art it is unknown 
except as a natural representation, for example, of fish swimming in 
the water, or, in frescoes of the last judgment, as restoring human 
limbs which they had devoured, illustrative of the passage, " And the 
sea gave up the dead which were in it." — Rev. xx, 13. 



Their Symbolism. 253 

that the initial letters of the names and titles of Our 
Lord in Greek — 'Irjoovg XpiOTdg, Qeov Tlog, Zcottjp, Jesus 
Christ, Son of God, the Saviour — make up the word 
1X9X2, a fish. " This single word," says Optatus, " con- 
tains a host of sacred names."* The same word also 
occurs acrostically in the initial letters of certain so- 
called Sibylline verses quoted by Eusebius f and Au- 
gustine, J which were doubtless of Christian origin. The 
symbol is first mentioned by Clement of Alexandria, § 
and probably had its origin in the allegorizing school of 
Christianity which sprang up in that city. || 

There appears also to have been an allusion in this 
figure to the ordinance of baptism. "We are little 
fishes," says Tertullian, " in Christ our great fish. For 
we are born in water, and can only be saved by contin- 
uing therein," % that is, through the spiritual grace of 
which baptism is the visible sign. " This sign," says 
Clement, "will prevent men from forgetting their origin." 
" He (that is, Christ) is that fish," says Optatus, " which 
in baptism descends in answer to prayer into the bap- 
tismal font, so that what was before water is now called, 

* Piscis nomen, secundum appellationem Grcecam, in uno nomine 
per singulas literas turbam sanctorum nominumcontinet'lX8Y2,' quod 
est- Latine, Jesus Christus, Dei Filius, Salvator. — Optat., Cont. Par- 
men., lib., iii. 

j- Orat. Const, ad Ccet. Sa7ict., § 18. \ De Civ. Dei, xviii, 23. 

§ Peedag., lib. iii, cap. ii. The symbol also occurs in a Christian 
Catacomb at Alexandria, and at Cyrene, in Upper Egypt. 

I The Jewish Christians of that city would be already familiar with 
this mode of coining significant titles, which is illustrated in the name 
of their national heroes, the Maccabees, said to be made up of the 
initial letters, 13573, °f tneir battle cry, nif!* 1 b^T^SD i"tic;j""*iJa 
— " Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?" 

\ Nos, pisciculi secundum 1XGYN nostrum Jesum Christum, in 
aqua nascimur, nee aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus. — 
De Baptisnio, cap. i. 



254 The Catacombs of Rome. 

from the fish, (a pisce,) piscina."* Even the mythical 
fish mentioned in the apocryphal book of Tobit,f occa- 
sional pictures of which occur in the Catacombs, is 
interpreted by some of the Fathers as typifying Our 
Lord. " That fish which came alive out of the river to 
Tobias," says Augustine, "whose heart, (liver,) consumed 
by passion, put the demon to flight, was Christ." J 

This sacred sign was also regarded as an emblem of 
the sufferings of Our Lord and the benefits of his atone- 
ment. " The Saviour, the Son of God," says Prosper 
of Aquitania, " is a fish prepared in his passion, by whose 
interior remedies we are daily enlightened and fed."§ 
" IX9TS is the mystical name of Christ," says Augustine, 
"because he descended alive into the depths of this 
mortal life as into the abyss of waters." | " The fish in 
whose mouth was the coin paid as the tribute money," 
says Jerome, "was Christ, at the cost of whose blood 
all sinners were redeemed." Origen merely speaks of 
him as " figuratively called the fish." 1 " Thus this sym- 
bol became," says Dr. Northcote, " a sacred tessera, em- 
bodying with wonderful brevity and distinctness a 

* Hie (sc. Christus) est piscis qui in baptismate per invocationem 
fontalibus undis inseritur ut quae aqua fuerat a pisce etiam piscina 
vocitetur. — Epis. Milevitanus. The piscina is now the basin in 
which the sacred vessels are washed. 

f See chaps, vi and xi. 

% Est Christus piscis ille qui ad Tobiam ascendit de flumine vivus, 
cujus jecore per passionem assato fugatus est diabolus. 

§ Dei Filius, Salvator, piscis in sua passione decoctus, cujus ex 
interioribus remediis quotidie illuminamur et pascimur. — De Proniis. 
et Prcedic. Dei, ii, 39. 

I 1X9T2, in quo nomine mystice intelligitur Christus, eo quod in 
hujus mortalitatis abysso, velut in aquarum profunditale vivus. — De 
Civ. Dei. 

1[ XpiGTos 6 Tpomaug "keyofiEVog 'IxOvg. — Opp. ed. Bened., torn. iii. 
p SS4. 



Their Symbolism. 255 

complete abridgment of the creed — a profession of 
faith, as it were, both in the two natures and unity of 
person, and in the redemptorial office, of Our Blessed 
Lord." * 

Few symbols, if any, were more common than this. 
Il occurs rudely scratched on funeral slabs, painted in 
the cubicula, sculptured on the sarcophagi, moulded on 
lamps, f engraven on rings and seals, J carved in ivory, 
mother-of-pearl, and precious stones, and cast in bronze 
or glass. These last, often pierced in order to be worn 
like an amulet, were frequently given to the neophyte 
at baptism to remind him of the privileges and obliga- 
tions which it,conferred, and they are often found buried 
with the dead. One of these has engraved upon it the 
word 282AI2 — " Mayest thou save us ; " and a sepulchral 
lamp, besides representations of fishes, bears the word 
IX9T2, and, as if in explanation, the cyphers A. Q., IH. 
X9. SftTHP— that is, The First and the Last, Jesus Christ, 
the Saviour. A slab, on which are engraved two fishes 
and an anchor, bears the inscription, IX0Y2 Z&NTftN — 
"The fish of the living." Sometimes this sacred sign is 
inscribed on pagan tombstones used to close the locuh 
of the Catacombs, in order to give them a Christian 
character. Frequently the execution is exceedingly 
rude, as in Fig. 50 ; occasionally it is of a more artistic 
form, as in Fig. 
51. It seldom ^r - m 

occurs alone, / ^ ^^ ' \^ 

howeve ,but as- (__ / 

sociated with 

~. . . Fig. 50.— Symbolical Fish, 

other Christian 

* Rom. Soti., p. 210. Probably the aureole of Mediaeval art de- 
rived its name of vesica piscis from this symbol. 

f See Fig. 113. J See Fig. 118. 




256 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




Fig. 51.— Symbolical Fish. 



emblems, as the anchor or dove, (see Figs. 52 and 53,) 

as if to indicate that 
the deceased rests in 
Christ, in hope and 
in peace. Sometimes 
the fish bears awre.ith 
in its mouth, perhaps 
in allusion to the crown which Christ will give to all his 

saints. Didron ob- 
jects to applying 
these symbols to 
Christ, because the 
fish dpes not wear 
the nimbus. But 
the nimbus was not 
worn at all at this 
early period ; such 




Fig. 52— Fish and Anchor. 

From, the Catacomb of Hermes. Earliest dated 

example, A. D. 234. 

a criterion is therefore inadmissible. 

r 




Fig. 53.— Fish and Dove. 
From the Catacomb oj St. Priseilla. 



This sa- 
c r e d fish 
is sometimes 
represented, 
as in Fig. 54, 
from the 
crypt of St. 
Lucina, bear- 
ing what seems to be a basket of bread and a flagon of 
wine on its back, or occasionally a 
loaf of bread in its mouth. In these 
^^^lP_ljg^^ cases tnere is probably a reference 
to the bread of life which Christ 

FiS ' 5 s'ymSor arIStiC breaks t0 his disci P les > or Possibly 

to the holy eucharist. Sometimes 

a bird is pictured as deriving nourishment from the 




Their Symbolism. 257 

mouth of a fish, the symbol of a soul receiving refresh- 
ment from Christ. The eucharist is also thought to be 
indicated by frequent representations of a fish and bread 
on a table, sometimes with a figure in prayer standing by ; 
and also by a picture of seven persons eating a repast 
of bread and fish together, probably Christ dining with 
the disciples by the sea-shore after his resurrection. 

Melito of Sardis speaks of Our Lord under the fig- 
ure of a fish broiled on the fire of tribulation.* A mys- 
tical interpretation was also given to the loaves and 
fishes multiplied by Christ for the feeding of the multi- 
tude, as indicating the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit and 
the dispensations of the law and the gospel.f 

A remarkable Greek inscription, found about thirty 
years ago in an ancient Christian Cemetery at Autun, in 
France, throws much light on the profound religious 
significance of the symbol of the fish. % Its date, as in- 
dicated by the character of the epigraphy, in the opin- 
ion of the most eminent critics, is about the year 400. § 
The language is of Homeric purity and vigour, which is 
accounted for by the fact that Autun was, during the 
fourth and fifth centuries, a sort of " French Eton," where 
Greek, the tongue "of Homer and the gods," was sed- 
ulously cultivated. The following is the text as restored 

* Piscis . . . Christus tribulationis igne assatus. Compare the 
phrase of Augustine — Piscis assus Christus passus. 

f Plerique septiformis Spiritus gratiam in panibus definitam, in 
piscibus quoque duplicis testamenti figuram intelligendam putant. 
— Ambrose, in Luc. ix. 

\ This has been minutely examined by Cardinal Pitra — its discov- 
erer — Kirchoff, Garrucci, Le Blant, and other eminent scholars. The 
monograph of Marriott, its latest editor, is a masterpiece of epigraph- 
ical criticism. 

§ Cardinal Pitra places it about A. D. 250, but the elongated form 
of the letters, of which there is no early example, forbids the sup- 
position. 

17 



25S The Catacombs of Rome. 

and translated by Marriott. It will be perceived that 
the word 1X0X2 occurs acrostically in the initial letters 
of the first five lines, and is found four times in the body 
of the inscription. It is conjectured that the figure 
of a fish was also engraved, though now unhappily oblit- 
erated, at both the lower corners, where spaces for it 
seem to have been left. 

1X9 YOC oypavlov uyiov yivog, rjTopi oe/xvv 
XpTJue, Xafiuv &tjv uufipoTov kv Pporioig 
Qea-Kemuv vddruv rrjv otjv, fyiXs, du^neo i^vxtjv 
"Ydaoiv aevdotg irlovTodorov H,o<i>iT}g, 
2uT7Jpog 6' dyiuv fielM/dea Xufij3ave jjpuaiv. 
"KaOis itelvuov IX9YN e^uv naTidfiatg. 
IX9T1 x EL P a S upapa- "kikaizo dioiroTa HCirsp 
Kvdv fj.01 7]yr)T7ip, as "Kitu^ojie, <j>ug to Bavovruv. 
'Ao%avc5Ze Trdrcp, t£) 'fiti nexapiap-ive dvfiu, 
Hvv [irjTpl yliVKeprj nal ndaiv toIglv kpoioiv 
1X9TN iduv vlov [xvyoeo Tlmropiov. 

" Offspring of the heavenly Ichthus, [Christ,] see that a heart of holy 
reverence be thine, now that from divine waters thou hast received, 
while yet among mortals, a spring of life that is to immortality. 
Quicken thy soul, beloved one, to ever fuller life, with the unfailing 
waters of wealth-giving wisdom, and receive the honey-sweet food of 
the Saviour of the saints. Eat with longing hunger, holding Ichthus 
[the Divine Food] in thy hands. On Ichthus [Christ] my hands are 
clasped ; in thy love draw nigh unto me and be my guide, my Lord, 
and Saviour ; I entreat thee, thou Light of them for whom the hour of ' 
death is past. My father, Aschandeius, dear unto my heart, and thou, 
sweet mother, and all I love on earth, oft as you look on Ichthus 
[the holy sign of Christ] so often think of me, Pectorius, your son." * 

* The epitaph of Abercius, a Phrygian bishop of the second centu ry, 
also contains an allusion to the heavenly Ichthus, and probably to the 
eucharist, in the lines which we quote : 

. . . Hiarig ds npoorjye 
Kai TrapiOjjKE npocpr/v.^ 'IxBvv Bsiag utto nrjyfjg, 
Tla/i/ieyed?], KaBapbv, bv hSpd^aro napBivog dyvrf 
Kal tovtov eite6uke tyiXoig loBsiv <hd ■Kavrbg, 
Olvov xprjorov ix ovaa > Kipao/ia didovaa fier 1 uprov. 
" Faith brought to us and set before us food, a fish from a divine fount, 



Their Symbolism. 259 

In this beautiful expression of primitive faith and 
hope Romish interpretation has discovered evidence 
of prayers for the dead, of the invocation of the Virgin 
Mary, the doctrine of transubstantiation and communion 
in one kind, and mention of the " sacred heart of Jesus." 
Marriott has well shown the grammatical and other dif- 
ficulties which these forced interpretations create, and 
the absurdity of importing into antiquity " controversial 
phrases of comparatively modern theology, utterly un- 
known to the early church." 

Sometimes, by a confusion of metaphor common to 
both pictorial and literary figurative expression, the sym- 
bol of the fish is applied to men as well as to Our Lord. 
Indeed, this may have been its primary application, and 
has the sanction of the scriptural designation of the 
apostles as " fishers of men." The Greek liturgy adopts 
the same figure, and, in pursuance of the metaphor, 
speaks of the rod of the cross, the hook of preaching, 
and the bait of charity.* There are also frequent 
representations on the sarcophagi and in the frescoes of 
the Catacombs, doubtless in allusion to this function of 
the Christian ministry, of men drawing fish out of the 
water. These, however, must not be confounded with 
the occasional fishing scenes copied from pagan art ; and 
the symbolical fish must be carefully discriminated from 
the dolphins which frequently occur on the sarcophagi, 
and from the " great fish " which swallowed Jonah. It is 

great and clean, which the holy maiden took in her hand and gave it 
to hei friends, that they should always eat thereof, holding goodly 
wine, giving with bread a mingled drink." 

The "holy maiden" is evidently, from the context, as Marriott re- 
marks, Faith personified, although Padre Garrucci and Dr. Northcote 
regard her as no other than the Virgin Mary. 

* We have seen how Tertullian designates believers as little fishes 
—pisciculi. 



260 The Catacombs of Rome. 

remarkable that a bronze image with a chalice and fish 
was found at Autun, in the neighbourhood of the in- 
scription above given. The figure occurs also on cer- 
tain ancient coins, and in representations of the Phoe- 
nician Dagon or fish-god. 

It is noteworthy that there are in the Catacombs com- 
paratively few representations of the cross, that sacred 
sign of salvation which in after years became per- 
verted to such superstitious uses ; and when it does 
occur it is generally in some disguised form, and not in 
that by which it is now generally indicated, familiarly 
known as the Latin cross. There is probably a twofold 
reason for this. The very sanctity of the symbol, 
and the detestation in which it was held by the heathen, 
conspired to prevent the early Christians from exposing 
it to their profane gaze. It is almost impossible to con- 
ceive the abhorrence in which the cross was held in the 
early centuries by the Greek and Roman mind. It has 
for ages been hallowed by the most sacred and vener- 
able associations, and invested with the most sublime 
and solemn interest as the emblem of the world's re- 
demption. It has waved on consecrated banners, and 
been quartered on the arms of earth's proudest mon- 
archs. It has shone on cathedral spire and dome, and, 
emblazoned with gold and costly gems, has gleamed on 
many a sacred shrine. It has been marked on the in- 
fant brow in baptism, and held before the filming eyes 
of the dying; and has been associated with the deepest 
emotions and holiest hopes of the soul. 

Not so in the earliest ages of the church. It was then 
the badge of infamy and sign of shame — the punishment 
of the basest of slaves and the vilest of malefactors. It 
was regarded with a loathing and abhorrence more in- 
tense than that in which the felon's gibbet is held 



Their Symbolism. 261 

to-day. Its very name was an abomination to Roman 
ears,* and it was denounced by the prince of Roman 
orators as a most foul and brutal punishment, an infa- 
mous and unhappy tree.f Hence this Christian em- 
blem became the object of scoffing and derision by the 
persecuting heathen. An illustration of this is seen in 
the blasphemous caricature of the Crucifixion, found 
upon the walls of the palace of the Caesars and attrib- 
uted to the time of Septimius Severus.J It represents a 
figure with an ass's head attached to a cross, which 
another figure, standing near, salutes by kissing the hand, 
or adores in the classical sense of the word. Beneath 
is a rude scrawl which has been interpreted thus : 'AAe£- 
o/xevog (jefiere (sic) Qeov — " Alexomenos worships his god," 
probably the sneer of some Roman legionary at a Chris- 
tian soldier of Caesar's household. Lucian also contempt- 
uously speaks of Our Lord as a " crucified impostor." § 
The Christians, therefore, reverently veiled this sacred 
sign from the multitude ; but they cherished it in their 
hearts, and in times of persecution gladly bore its re- 
proach. The early Fathers, both Greek and Latin, 

* Nomen ipsum cruris absit non modo a corpore civium Romano- 
rum, sed etiam a cogitatione, oculis, auribus. — Cicero, pro Rabirio. 

f Crudelissimum etteterrimum . . . arbor infelix, infame lignum. 
— Cic, pro Rabirio. 

\ Now in the Museum of the Collegio Romano. 

§ Tbv av£OKo?M7uofiivov ekeZvov aotpiar^v. — De Morte Peregr. 

Tertullian mentions as a common heathen delusion the idea that 
the God of the Christians had an ass's head. He also speaks of a 
heathen picture of a figure having the ears of an ass, hoofed in one 
foot, carrying a book and wearing a toga, to which was affixed the in- 
scription, " The God of the Christians, born of an ass." — Apol., c. 16. 

Probably such caricatures were common. On a slab recently dis- 
covered in the Vigna Nussiner is a representation of an ass with the 
inscription, " Hie est Deus Hadriani," apparently a satirical allusion to 
that emperor's favourable disposition to Christianity. 



262 The Catacombs of Rome. 

recognize the occurrence of this symbol everywhere 
throughout the universe, and expatiate with fervent elo- 
quence on its mystical meaning. The points of the 
compass, says Jerome, and the fourfold dimensions of 
space as mentioned by the apostle,* set it forth. Its 
form was assumed by birds in their flight, by men in the 
act of swimming and in the attitude of prayer, and is 
seen in the masts and yards of vessels. f " The cross," 
says Justin Martyr, J "is impressed on all nature; there 
is scarcely a craftsman but employs the figure of it 
among the implements of his industry." It was seen in 
the beam and share of the plough, and in the forms of 
flowers and leaves. It was typified in countless analo- 
gies of Scripture, in the measurement of the ark, the 
number of Abraham's servants, the shape of Jacob's staff, 
and the roasting of the paschal lamb ; in the rod of Moses, 
the seven-branched candlestick, and the wave-offerings 
of the temple service ; and it was the hallowed sign 
marked in blood on the lintels of the Hebrews' houses. 
It healed the envenomed wounds of the serpent-bitten 
Israelites in the desert, routed the Amalekites in battle, 
and restored to life the son of the widow who gave 
bread to the prophet. It was the mark of God on the 
saints of Jerusalem, and was to be the sign of the Son 
of man in the heavens. The Christians wore the sacred 
token like a banner on their foreheads, § and the form 
at which men once shuddered, says Chrysostom, be- 

* Eph. iii, 18. 

\ Ipsa species crucis quid est nisi forma quadrata mundi ? . . . Aves 
quando volant in sethera, formam crucis assumunt ; homo natans per 
aquas, vel orans, forma crucis vehitur. Navis per maria antenna cruci 
fiimilata sufflatur. — Hieronym. in Mark xv. 

\ Apol., i, 72. See also Minuc. Felix, cap. 29. 

§ Ego Christianus . . . et vexillum crucis in mea fronte portans.— 
Hieron., Ep. 113. 



Their Symbolism. 263 

came the badge of highest honour, so that even emperors 
laid aside the diadem to assume the cross. " Let him 
bear the cross," says Paulinus, " who would wear the 
crown."* Christians were known as "devotees of the 
cross, "f and this sign of Christ J was employed to hal- 
low every act of their lives, their down-sitting and up- 
rising, their going out and coming in.§ It was especially 
adopted, as several of the Fathers remark, || as the atti- 
tude of prayer, and Chrysostom quotes in explanation 
the words of the Psalmist, " Let the lifting up of my 
hands be as the evening sacrifice." If Tertullian and 
Asterius Amasenus ** expressly declare that thus is set 
forth the passion of Our Lord. 

This symbol acquired at length in popular apprehension 
the power of a sacred talisman to banish demons, van- 

* Tolle crucem qui vis auferre coronam. 

f Crucis religiosi. — Tertul., Apol., 16. 

\ Signum Christi, to nvpianbv orjfielov. — Clem. Alex., Strom., vi, II. 

§ Ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et 
exitum, ad vestitum, ad calceatum, ad lavacra, ad mensas, ad lumi- 
na, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quaecunque nos conversatio exercet, frontem 
crucis signaculo tenemus. — Tertul., de Coron. Mil., c. iii. 

I Crucis signum est, cum homo porrectis manibus Deum pura 
mente veneratur. — Mimic, Dial., p. 90. Expansis manibus in mo- 
dum crucis orabat. — Paulin., Vit. Ambros.,^. 12. Hie habitus oran- 
tium est, ut manibus in ccelum extensis precemur.— ^Apuleius. — Accord- 
ing to Eusebius, Constantine was thus represented on the coins of the 
empire. — 'Qf uvu flteneiv donelv uvaTerafievog npbg Qebv, rpoirov ci^o- 
ukvov. — Vit. Const., 1. iv, c. 15. 

^[ Chrys. in Psa. cxli, 2. Compare Paul's expression about " lift- 
ing up holy hands " in prayer. — 1 Tim. ii, 8. 

** Nos vero non attoleimus tantum, sed etiam expandimus, et Do- 
minica passione modulantes, et orantes Christo confitemur. — Tertul., de 
Orat., c. II. To rov aravpov nudo£ kv tg3 axr/fian kZeiKovifri. — Aster., 
ap. Phot., cod. 271. This attitude of prayer was also common to the 
pagans in their addresses to the Dii Superi, or celestial gods. Hence 
Virgil represents /Eneas as praying with his hands stretched out to 
heaven — Dnplices tendens ad sidera palmas. 



264 The Catacombs of Rome. 

quish Satan, avert evil, protect in time of danger or temp- 
tation, and to shut the mouths of lions about to devoui 
the intrepid confessors of the faith.* The sign of the 
cross on the forehead and heart, says Prudentius, ban- 
ishes all evil, f Another poet of the fifth century recom- 
mends the mystical charm as an antidote to diseases of 
cattle. Into such superstition had Christianity already 
degenerated.^ 

More common than any other Christian symbol in the 
Catacombs is the so-called Constantinian monogram,^ . 

* See an instance of this miracle recorded in Eusebius. — Hist. Eccles., 
viii, 7. 

f Fac cum vocante somno 

Castum petes cubile, 

Frontem locumque cordis, 

Crucis figura signet. 
Crux pellit omne noxium. — Hymn vi, 
\ Endelechius, De mortibus Bovium. In later times the sign of the 
cross was used in both Greek and Latin benedictions, which were given 
with many puerile distinctions, and with much supposed spiritual ben- 
efit. — See Didron, Iconog. Ckret., pp. 406-410. The cross has also 
given the name to many famous churches, which were frequently cru- 
ciform in shape. In France are over a score of cathedrals or abbeys 
named Sainte Croix, and in Italy many named Santa Croce. In 
Great Britain we have Saint Cross at Winchester, and Holyrood in 
Edinburgh. The cross was also used to mark boundaries, parishes, 
cross roads ; hence the phrase, " to beg like a cripple at a cross." Of 
three hundred and sixty wayside crosses once existing in Iona only 
one remains. This sign was used to mark the beginning and end of 
books, and as a mark of punctuation. It gave validity to legal doc- 
uments, and still accompanies the sign manual of ecclesiastical 
dignitaries. 

Crucifixion was abolished by Constantine out of reverence for the 
manner of Our Lord's death. 

The cross would scarcely have .been publicly employed while this 
shameful mode of punishment was practiced. The earlier examples 
had probably a baptismal signification as a sign of the faith. Of this 
character seem to have been those erected or inlaid by Constantine 
in his baptisteries and elsewhere. Only by slow degrees did it be 
come the symbol of the sufferings of Christ. 



Their Symbolism. 265 

The first certain example of this is the following, which 
Dears the date A. D. 331 : * 

. -p\ ASELLVS ET LEA PRISCO PATRI BENEMERENTI IN PACE 
\^T^ QVI BIXIT ANNIS LXIIII MENSIBVS III DIES N XII. 

Asellus and Lea to Priscus, their well-deserving father, in peace, who 

lived sixty- four years, three months, twelve days. In the sign of Christ. 

Fig. 55.— Earliest dated Oonstantinian Monogram. 

A somewhat similar form occurs with the date A. D. 
291, but De Rossi thinks it is only an ornamental point. f 
The following fragment may possibly belong to the year 
298, when one of the consuls was named Gallus ; but it 
cannot be proved that he is the one mentioned in the 
inscription: [vi]xit . . . ^ ... gal . conss. — "He 
lived in Christ . . . and Gallus being consuls." % 

In the year 339 the second dated example occurs, en- 
closed in a circle. In A. D. 341 three examples are 
found, and in A. D. 343 it occurs four times in one 
inscription. After this it becomes exceedingly com- 

* De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., No. 39. 

t /«</., No. 17. 

\ Ibid., No. 26. With true archaeological enthusiasm, De Rossi ex- 
claims, " Scarcely any monument in this whole class is worthy of such 
observation as this sepulchral fragment. For if indeed this name is that 
of Gallus, the colleague of Faustus, behold, what I have ever intensely 
desired, I have at length with joy obtained — to see with my own eyes 
a certain dated monument which exhibits the celebrated monogram ■&?■ 
before the year 312. Would that I could find the part of the in- 
scription that is lost," he adds, " which, if it bore the name of Faus- 
tus, I would esteem more precious than gold and gems " — auro contra 
et gemmis cariorem sestimarem." But he was not permitted to be 
so happy, and it is probable that the Gallus referred to is another of 
much later date. 



266 The Catacombs of Rome. 

mon, and is even employed as a mark of punctuation 
between the words. 

This monogram is formed, as will be perceived, by the 
combination of the Greek characters X and P, the first 
two letters of the word XPI2T02, or Christ. It may, 
indeed, be regarded rather as a contracted form of 
writing that word than as a proper symbol, just as we 
sometimes write Xt. and Xmas. for Christ and Christ- 
mas. Indeed, it most probably originated in the prev- 
alent practice of contracted and monogrammatic writ- 
ing, of which we have so many examples in these in- 
scriptions. That the monogram stands for the name of 
Our Lord will be apparent from an examination of a 
few of the inscriptions in which it occurs, as, for in- 
stance, the very first dated example, above given. See 
also the following : in pace et in % deo — " In peace 
and in Christ God; " bibas in % — "May you live in 
Christ ; " in J^ victrix, which probably meant " Victrix 
(a woman's name) victorious in Christ." Marangoni 
gives the accompanying impression of a seal on the 
plaster of a grave. See figure 56. 

This monogram soon became almost 

^v universal in the Catacombs, on sepul- 

(^ chral slabs, lamps, vases, rings, seals, 

weights, gems, etc., and in every con- 

; ceivable modification of form, some of 

„„ • tt- .. which are shown in the illustration on 
" Hope in Him, 

i. e.., in Christ. next P a g e - See also the vignette on title 
Fig. 56— Chris- P a g e > copied from an alabaster slab in 
tian Seal. the Collegio Romano, originally from 
the Catacombs. 

Frequently the Greek letters Alpha and Omega ac- 
company the monogram, as in numbers 1, 4, and 6 of 
Fig. 57, in allusion to the sublime passage in the Reve- 




Their Symbolism. 



26; 




Pig. 57.— Various Forms of the Constantinian Monogram. 

lation descriptive of the eternity of Christ.* Some- 
times the order of the letters is reversed, probably 
through the ignorance of the artist, as in the accompany- 
ing rude example, Fig. 58. 
The whole was sometimes 
placed obliquely, or even 
turned upside down, doubt- 
less for the same rea- 
son. Even in its simplest 
form it was considered suf- 
ficient to give a Christian 
character to a tombstone Fig. 58.—" Tasaris in Christ, the 
which had been originally First and the Last." 




AWs 



* Rev. i, 8. Prudentius in his ninth hymn paraphrases the same 

thought : 

Alpha et Q cognominatus ; ipse fons et clausula 
Omnium quse sunt, fuerunt, quseque post futura sunt. 

In Mediseval art the letters 6 wv&re often inscribed on the cruciform 

nimbus indicating Our Lord, in allusion to the scripture, tyu elftl 6 uv 

t- " I am that I am." 



268 The Catacombs of Rome. 

pagan. Such inscriptions are called opisthographce, that 
is, written behind. In the following example from 
Aringhi the letters D. M., for the heathen formula dis 
manibvs, — " To the Divine Manes," are partially oblit- 
erated, and the consecrating sign substituted instead. 
HERCULIO. INNOCENTI 

QJJL .an in * VEI 

JENUAPIA ALUMNOMERE. 
IN PACE 



Pig. 59— Opisthographic Inscription. 

This monogram has been supposed to have been 
adopted from the celebrated Labarum, or battle-stand- 
ard of Constantine, which bore this sacred figure. This 
was derived in turn, it was feigned, from the image 
which the imperial convert saw, or thought he saw, 
traced in the sky in characters of fire brighter than the 
noon-day sun, before the battle of the Milvian Bridge. 
Probably a solar halo of unusual splendour was magnified 
by the eager imagination of Constantine into a token of 
divine assistance, and the legend 'Ev to#tg) vina was an 
after addition of the credulous historian. The Christian 
emblem, according to Prudentius,* was worn upon the 
shields and helmets of the whole army as well as on the 
imperial standard; "and so," says Milman, "for the 
first time the meek and peaceful Jesus became a God 

* Christus purpureum gemmanti textus in auro, 
Signabat labarum, clypeorum insignia Christus 
Scripserat : ardebat summis crux addita cristis. 

— In Symmachum, vv. 487-489. 



Their Symbolism. 269 

of battle ; and the cross, the holy sign of Christian re- 
demption, a banner of bloody strife." * 

Probably there is allusion to the above mentioned 
legend in the following inscription from Bosio : 

IN HOC VINCES 



X 



SINFONIA ET FILIIS. 
In this thou shalt conquer. In Christ. Sinfonia, also for her sons. 

On a remarkable sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum 
is a representation of the monogram f supported on a 
cross and surrounded by a wreath, at which doves are 
pecking ; probably a symbol of the souls of the blessed 
feeding on the hope of an immortal crown and the 
sweetness of eternal bliss. Beneath are crouched two 
soldiers, types, it is thought, of the Christian warriors not 
yet entered into rest, whose only place of safety is at 
the foot of the cross ; or they may refer to the Draconii, 
or imperial guard of the Labarum, who, according to 
Eusebius, passed unhurt amid showers of javelins. 

The following enlarged copy of an early Christian seal 
exhibits the triumph of the cross over the Old Serpent, 
the Devil, while it is the symbol of salvation to the 
saints represented by the doves at its foot. In later 

* Hist, of Christianity, bk. iii, chap. i. From the time of Constan- 
tine the monogram became common on the coins of the Empire. 
Valentinian III. and his wife Eudoxia first wore it on the im- 
perial crown. In later Greek art the cross is generally accompanied 
by the letters IOXC NIKA, that is, "Jesus Christ is conqueror." 
Eusebius describes a statue of Constantine at Rome bearing this 
monogram. {Hist. Eccles., ix, 9.) 

f See Fig. 104, chap. iv. Paulinus refers to the bitter cross sur- 
rounded by a flowery crown : 

Ardua floriferce Crux cingitur orbe coronse. 

— Epis. xii, ad Severum. 



270 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




art the figures of lions, eagles, falcons, peacocks, doves, 
and lambs, grouped around the cross, seem to signify 
its power to subdue evil pas- 
sions and to inspire holy virtues. 
The change of the monogram 
into the cross was very gradual. 
First one stroke of the X be- 
came coincident with the verti- 
cal part of the P, and the other 
at right angles to it, as in No. 6, 
Fig. 57. At length the loop of the 
P disappears and the Greek cross 
Fig. 60— Early Christian results. In the other examples 
of Fig. 57 the cross, if cross it 
was at all, was neither in the Greek nor Latin form, 
but in that known as St. Andrew's. Finally the lower 
arm was lengthened till it assumes the form shown 
in the accompanying engraving, which was found on 
the grave of a neophyte four 
years old. The first dated ex- 
ample of a simple undisguised 
cross in the Catacombs does not 
occur till A. D. 407 ; * but dur- 
ing the latter part of the fifth 
century it became quite com- 
mon. It also became more or- 
nate in form, and was frequently 
adorned with gems and wreathed 
with flowers, especially in the 
later bas reliefs. In the fourth 
century it had already become 




Fig. 61.— Monogram, 
united with the Cross. 



* De Rossi, Inscrip. Christ., No. 576. Of course there may be 
earlier examples which are undated. 



Their Symbolism. 271 

an object of such superstitious veneration as to call 
forth the reproaches of Julian and the extravagant 
laudation of many of the Christian fathers.* In the time 
of Chrysostom the alleged discovery of the true cross 
by the Empress Helena was universally received, and 
" materialized at' once," says Milman, " the spiritual 
worship of Christianity." f Its position was revealed in 
a vision and its genuineness proved by the miraculous 
cures which it performed, as recorded by St. Cyril, 
afterward bishop of Jerusalem, a reputed eye-witness of 
the event. The precious relic, distributed throughout 
Christendom \ and in minute portions worn as sacred 
talismans, did much to cultivate a spirit of superstition 
which culminated in the Romish festivals of the In- 
vention and Exaltation of the Cross, and in the hymns 
and offices of the church, often bordering, at least, upon 
idolatrous homage. § It also led to the conception of 

* In later art ingenuity was exhausted in multiplying varieties of 
the form of the cross. Besides the ordinary Greek and Latin types, 
there was the Resurrection cross, a reed-like shaft with a small cross- 
let, generally bearing a banneret ; the Calvary cross, with steps at its 
foot ; the crux gam?nata, or fourfold repetition of the Greek letter 
T, the crux gem?nata, stellata, Jlorida, etc. There were also innu- 
merable minor varieties for which distinguishing names are provided 
in the jargon of heraldry. 

f Hist. Christianity, iii, 3. Eusebius is silent concerning this event. 

\ Helena calmed the Adriatic with one of the nails ; of another Con- 
stantine made a bit for his horse ; a portion is annually exhibited at 
Rome bearing the threefold title of Our Lord in Hebrew, Greek, 
and Latin, the first undecipherable. 

§ Witness the following from the Vexilla Regis, addressed to the 
material cross : " Hail, O cross, our only hope ! give grace to the pious, 
blot out the sins of the wicked " — 

O crux, ave, spes unica ! 
Piis adauge gratiam ; 
Reisque dele crimina. 

Compare also the following, from the Office of the Invention of the 
Cross: "O cross, mflre splendid than all the stars, . . . which alone 



272 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the marvelous legend of the cross in the apocryphal 
gospels and ancient traditions.* 

wasl worthy to bear the ransom of the world ! sweet wood, sacred 
nails, bearing so precious a burden, save this people assembled to- 
day to sing thy praises." — O Crux, splendidior cunctis astris, . . . 
quje sola fuisti digna portare talentum mundi ! dulce lignum, dulcts 
clavos, dulcia ferens pondera, salva prsesentem catervam in tuis 
hodie laudibus congregatam. 

This sacred theme has also been the subject of some of the 
noblest lyrics ef the church, none of which, however, surpass the im- 
passioned devotion of the following lines of Savonarola, the Luther 
of Italy, whose reform, alas ! was quenched in his own blood. 

O croce, fammi loco ! 
E le mie membre prendi ! 
Che del tuo dolce foco 
II cor e l'alma accendi ! 
La croce e'l crocifisso, 
Sia nel mio cor scolpito, 
Ed io sia sempre affisso 
In gloria ov' egli e ito ! 

Cross of my Lord, give room ! give room ! 

To thee my flesh be given ! 
Cleansed in thy fires of love and praise, 

My soul, rise pure to heaven ! 
Ah ! vanish each unworthy trace 

Of earthly care or pride ; 
Leave only graven on my heart 

The Cross, the Crucified. 

* According to this legend Adam when sick sent Seth to the gate 
of Eden to ask for the healing balm of the tree of life, but the 
guarding angel replied that ages must pass before that boon could 
be conferred on man. Seth received, however, three seeds, which 
he planted by his father's grave, situated on the site of Gol- 
gotha. From these sprang the rod of Aaron, and the tree which 
gave its mysterious virtue to the Pool of Bethesda, and rising to the 
surface at the hour of the passion, became the instrument of the 
crucifixion of Our Lord. After that momentous event it was thrown 
into the town ditch with the crosses of the two thieves, and covered 
with rubbish ; but at the intercession of Helena the earth opened, 
divine odours breathed forth, the three crosses were discovered, and 



Their Symbolism. 273 

The cross thus gradually assumed the form in which 
It is now generally represented ; but it was a sign of 
joy and gladness, crowned with flowers, adorned* with 
precious stones, " a pledge of the resurrection rather than 
a memorial of the passion." * It was like the rainbow in 
the cloud to Noah after the flood — a promise of mercy, 
not a symbol of wrath. It was not the dead Christ but 
the glorified Redeemer that the primitive Church pre- 
sented to the imagination. She lingered not by the 
empty sepulchre, but followed by faith the risen Lord. 
The persecuted saints shared the triumph of His vic- 
tory over death and the grave, and felt that because He 
lived they should live also. 

The early believers carefully avoided, as though 
prevented by a sacred interdict, any attempt to depict 
the awful scenes of Christ's passion, the realistic treat- 
ment of which in Roman Catholic art so often shocks 
the sensibilities and harrows the soul. This solemn 
tragedy they felt to be the theme of devout and prayer- 
ful meditation rather than of portraiture in art. Hence 
we find no pictures of the agony and bloody sweat, the 
mocking and the shame, the death and burial of Our 
Lord. " The Catacombs of Rome," says Milman, 
" faithful to their general character, offer no instance of 
a crucifixion, nor does any allusion to such a subject of 
art occur in any early writing." f " The passion is not 
that of Our Lord was revealed by its curing an inveterate disease 
and raising a dead man to life. See also Legenda A urea, De Invert- 
(tone et Exaltation* Sancta Cruris. 

The material of the cross is described in the following distich : 
Pes crucis est cedrus, corpus tenet alta cupressus, 
Palma manus retinet titulo lsetabor oliva — 
"The foot is cedar, a lofty cypress bears the body, the arms are 
palm, the title olive bears." 

* Milman, Hist. Christianity, bk. iv, c. 4. 

\ Hist. Christianity, bk. iv, c. 4. One or two apparent excep- 
18 



274 The Catacombs of Rome. 

represented literally," says Dr. Northcote, a strenuous 
advocate of Roman Catholic views, " but under the veil 
of secresy. It is not our Beloved Lord, but some other 
who bears his cross. The crown which is placed on 
his head is of flowers rather than of thorns, and corre- 
sponds better with the mystical language of the Spouse 
in the Canticles* than would a literal treatment."!. 
With this agrees the assertion of the distinguished Prus- 
sian archaeologist, Prof. Piper, of Berlin. Speaking of 
the series of art representations, belonging to the first 
five centuries, of scenes in the life of Our Lord, 
which extend from his nativity to his appearance be- 
fore Pilate, he says, " Further, however, this series does 
not go : the death and resurrection of Christ have not 
at all been made the subject of representation in this 
period." % 

In the fifth 'century Paulinus of Nola speaks of 
Christ as represented by a snowy lamb standing at the 
foot of the cross.§ Sometimes a lamb bore the cross, 
at others it was couchant in the midst of it ; and, as if 

tions, as in the semi-subterranean chapel annexed to the church of 
St. Sebastian, by their internal evidence — the drooping head, severe 
expression, and degraded art — indicate their late origin, Perret thinks 
of the twelfth or thirteenth century. Bottari figures one (Tav. 190) 
which may possibly belong to the seventh or eighth century. 

*Cant. hi, II. 

f Northcote's " Catacombs" p. 130. 

% Weiter aber geht diese Reihe nicht ; Tod und Auferstehung 
Christi sind in diesem Bereich gar nicht zur Darstellung gekommen. 
— Ueber den Christlichen Bilderkreis, p. 7. Berlin, 1852. Bishop 
Munter, indeed, asserts that, although it is impossible precisely to de- 
termine the first appearance of the crucifix, before the end of the 
seventh century the church knew nothing of them — Es ist un- 
mdglich das alter der crucifixe genau zu bestimmen. Vor dem 
Ende des siebenten Jahrhunderts kannte die Kirche sie nicht. — • 
Sinnbilder, etc., p. 77. 

§ Sub cruce sanguineA niveo stat Christus in agno. — Epis. xxxii. 



Their Symbolism. 275 

to bring the sacrificial emblem more vividly to mind, 
the lamb was represented as wounded and bleeding, an 
innocent victim given to an unjust death.* 

In A. D. 692 the Quinisextan Council decreed that 
the historic figure of Christ in human form should be 
substituted for paintings of the lamb f — an evidence 
that the earlier representations were purely allegorical. 
The lamb, however, still continued to be employed, and 
it required the reiterated injunction of Pope Adrian, in 
the eighth century, to enforce uniformity of usage ; and 
even after that time a reversion to the former practice 
sometimes occurred. 

The oldest extant representation of the crucifixion is 
a miniature in a Syrian evangelarium, of date A.D. 586, 
now in the Laurentian Library at Florence. The treat- 
ment of the subject is exceedingly rude, bordering on 
the grotesque. The figure of Our Lord is crowned 
with a nimbus and clothed with a long purple robe 
The soldiers on the ground are casting lots for his gar- 
ments, and the sun and moon look down upon the 
scene. A companion picture represents the ascension 
of Christ and the effusion of the Holy Spirit. 
" These are the oldest pictorial representations," says 
Prof. Piper, " of the earthly life of Jesus and of his ex- 
altation. ... At a somewhat later period," he continues, 
" they appear also in the west." \ 

Gregory of Tours, about the end of the sixth cen- 

* Agnus ut innocua injusto datur hostia letho. — Paulin., Epis. xxxii. 

f Christi Dei nostri humana forma characterem etiam in imaginibus 
ieinceps pro veteri agno erigi ac depingi jubemus. — Concilium Quint- 
Sex turn, Canon 82. 

% Das sind die altesten Bilder von dem Ende des irdischen Lebens 
Jesu und seiner Erhohung. . . . Bald darauf kommen sie bin und 
wieder auch in Abendlande vor. — Ueberden Christlic 'hen Bilder kreis, 
pp. 26, 27. 



2"j6 The Catacombs, of Rome. 

tury, mentions, apparently as an unusual innovation, a 
picture in the church at Narbonne which represented 
the crucifixion of Our Lord.* About the same time 
Venantius Fortunatus mentions what seems to have 
been a metallic cross bearing the image of Christ. f 

The figure of Jesus first appeared standing at the 
foot of the cross, frequently with outstretched arms as 
if in prayer, which type was common in the eighth 
century. Sometimes the bust only was exhibited at the 
top of the cross, or even hovering over it. as in a re- 
liquary presented to Theodelinda by Gregory the 
Great, the head being crowned with a nimbus, but 
without any expression of pain. 

In the ninth century the form of Christ is raised to 
the centre of the cross ; but he is still alive, with open 
eyes and head erect, as if to indicate that the divine 
nature was not subject to death. The hands are not 
nailed, but extended in prayer ; the darkened sun and 
and moon look down upon the awful tragedy ; but still 
a feeling of reverence prevented the depicting of any 
expression of suffering on the countenance of the Re- 
deemer. It was -not till the eleventh century that art 
attempted to represent either the agony or death of the 
Son of God.| From this time he is exhibited lifeless 

* Est et apud Narbonensem urbem pictura quae Dominum nostrum 
quasi praecinctum linteo indicat crucifixum. — De Glor. Mar., i, 23. 

f Crux benedicta nitet Dominus qua came pependit. — Cam., lib. 
ii. 3- 

% The earliest example of a dead Christ is in a MS. of dak A.D. 
1059. The oldest mural picture of this awful theme, now so com- 
mon throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, and which was pre- 
scribed as necessary for every altar by Benedict XIV, 1754, is the 
Church of Urban at Rome, and bears the date A. X. R. I. MXI. — 
Anno Christi ion. Few of those in the Italian churches are older 
than the fourteenth century. 



Their Symbolism. 277 

apon the cross, his hands and feet transpierced with 
nails and a spear wound in his side, from which the 
flowing blood sometimes falls on the head of the spec- 
tators, as if indicating the efficacy of the atonement; and 
in the thirteenth century the head drops heavily to one 
side* 

The arrangement of the drapery differs greatly in 
these paintings. In the tenth century the form of the 
divine victim is entirely clothed with a long robe with 
sleeves, the hands and feet alone being uncovered. In 
the eleventh and twelfth centuries the robe becomes 
shorter and the sleeves disappear; in the thirteenth 
it is reduced to a short tunic ; and in the fourteenth it is 
little more than a narrow girdle about the loins, at 
which stage it has since remained. The suppedaneum, 
or support for the feet, is generally represented. It is 
frequently in the form of a globe, or of a chalice. 
The support for the body is never shown in art. Some- 
times the sepulchre, with the angel and the two Marys, 
is seen in the background. One example, in St. John's 
Lateran, exhibits the gate of paradise and the tree of 
life. 

The expression of the face also underwent a change 
— a dire eclipse of woe — no less painful to behold. In 
the earlier pictures of the crucifixion the countenance 
of the Redeemer is still gentle and benign, the type of 
tenderness and truth ; but it gradually becomes more 
and more strongly marked with the expression of sor- 
row and physical anguish, till all the divine fades away, 
and only the human agony of the wan and furrowed 
face remains. The serene and joyous aspect which, as 

*The inclination of the apse from the axial line in some churches 
is said to represent this drooping of the head. 



278 The Catacombs of Rome. 

we shall see, the representations of Our Lord always 
wore in the Catacombs, vanishes, and he is depicted as 
the " man of sorrows," crushed with hopeless grief, 
crowned with thorns, transpierced with nails, and stained 
with dropping blood from the ghastly spear-wound in 
his side. Art exhausted its power in delineating the 
intensest forms of anguished suffering, sinking lower and 
lower in the depths of a brutal materiality and ferocity 
of treatment of this sacred theme. Even the genius 
of Michael Angelo only renders more painful the con- 
trast between the tender and pitiful Good Shepherd of 
the Catacombs and the relentless Judge of the Sistine 
Chapel, menacing the guilty with the thunderbolts of 
wrath — a pagan Zeus rather than the Christian God of 
Mercy. This striking change but too faithfully repre- 
sents the corresponding degradation and materialization 
of religious belief. 

The crucified Christ was not only depicted in his 
dying agonies on earth, but this human anguish is even 
introduced into representations of heaven, bringing 
gloom upon its glory and sadness amid its joy. The 
Divine Father is frequently portrayed as sitting on the 
throne of his majesty, and holding in his hand a cross 
on which hangs the agonized body of his Son.* 

In the East the development of image worship seems to 
have been earlier than in the West.f During the eighth 
century its corruptions provoked the iconoclastic zeal 
of the Tsaurian Leo ; and a general council condemned 
as idolatrous all symbols of Christ except the holy 
Eucharist. J Their destruction was rigorously prose 

*Didron, Iconog. Chret., pp. 226, 505. 

f Die also dem Morgenlande entstammen, says Professor Piper.- 
Ueber den Christlichen Bilderkreis, p. 27. 
% The Council of Constantinople, A. D. 754. 



Their Symbolism. 279 

cuted in the Eastern Empire ; but Gregory II. became 
the champion of image worship in the West, and Italy, 
adhering to her ancient pagan instincts, substituted this 
new idolatry for that which she had abandoned. 

The development of the graven representation of the 
passion was more gradual than its treatment in graphic 
art. This was the work of the sculptors. At first the 
figure of Our Lord was merely painted on a flat surface 
of wood or metal. This was afterward incised in out- 
line, and exhibited in low relief, as on an ivory diptych 
of date A. D. 888 in the Vatican Museum. In this the sun 
and moon, as genii, hold torches above the cross ; and 
by a singular association of ideas, Romulus and Remus, 
suckled by the wolf, appear at its foot, probably in allu- 
sion to Christ's spiritual subjugation of the Roman Em- 
pire.* The treatment of this sacred theme passed 
gradually through the stages of basso, mezzo, and alto 
relievo, becoming more and more detached, till, in the 
fourteenth century, the figure of Our Lord upon the 
cross stood out, the completed and portable crucifix.f 
From this, through rapid stages, we arrive at the gross 
and ghastly images which abound throughout Roman 
Catholic Christendom ; in every church and at every 
shrine ; in the homes alike of prince and peasant ; at 
the street corners and by the way side ; often in popu- 
lar apprehension endowed with the power of weeping, 
motion, speech, and working miracles. \ By such grada- 

* Hemans, Sacred Art in Itaty, p. 534. 

f See the reliefs upon the marble pulpits of Pisa and Sienna. 

% See one at Lucca, ascribed by tradition to the workmanship of 
Nicodemus, which was so famous as to be sworn by in the oath, a 
favourite one with the Plantagenet kings, " by Saint Vult of Lucca." 
Hemans, Sac. Art, p. 534. Another at Naples is said to have spoken 
in approval to St. Thomas Aquinas. Perhaps the most revolting ex- 
tant representation of Our Lord is one in the Cathedral of B.u^os. 



2 So The Catacombs of Rome, 

tions between the soul of man and the living Saviour 
came the image of the dead Christ, diverting the thoughts 
from the faith in a living Lord to an idolatrous venera- 
tion of a lifeless symbol. 

Thus, as Dr. Maitland remarks, in painting sight 
superseded faith, and in sculpture touch superseded 
sight. But still another resource of sensuousness was 
to be discovered; and in the year 1223, "when the 
world was growing cold,"* as the Roman Church, 
with a deeper meaning than it knew, asserted, Saint 
Francis of Assis is feigned to have received the 
stigmata of the five wounds of Christ, and thenceforth 
to have borne about in his body — a living crucifix— the 
marks of the Lord Jesus. This miracle was afterwards 
frequently repeated ; but the Church, seeking amid the 
growing darkness of the times to walk by sight and not 
by faith, wandered ever further and further from the 
central source of light and power, and lost all ability to 
communicate to a cold and dying world any spiritual 
life and warmth. 

The sad lesson of the history we have been tracing 
is but too plain. In the early ages, and in the fervent 
glow of primitive faith, no outward symbol was neces- 
sary to reveal to the soul the presence of the Divine, 
or to interpret the profound meaning of the atonement. 
The Church required no sensuous image of Him, whom 
having not seen she loved, to prevent that love from 
growing cold. As the fervour of faith failed she relied 
more on the visible sign to quicken her languid devo- 

in Spain. It is a stuffed human .skin, with a wig of false hair and a 
crown of real thorns. Elsewhere are Ecce Homos in wax with 
enamel eyes, and other puerile and unartistic modes of treatment of 
this solemn theme. 

* Refrigerante mundo, says the Roman office for St. Francis' day. 



Their Symbolism. 281 

tion ; bat not till six centuries of gathering gloom had 
passed over her head after her fatal alliance with im- 
perial power did degenerate art dare to portray to the 
eye of sense the death pangs and throes of mortal 
agony of the suffering Son of God. In the church of 
the Catacombs these images of sadness and gloom have 
no place. All is bright, cheerful, and hope-inspiring. 
In the following chapter we shall see that these charac- 
teristics are strikingly manifested in all the representa- 
tions of Our Lord that there occur. 

Note. : — We have made no reference in the foregoing remarks to the 
pre-Christian crosses, of which so many examples occur. It is not re- 
markable that this perhaps simplest of all geometrical figures should 
have attracted the notice of many diverse and ancient races, and 
even have been regarded as a sign of potent mystical meaning. This 
subject has been treated with a good deal of fantastic theory by S. 
Baring-Gould, M.A., (Curious Mytlis of the Middle Ages, pp. 341,^/ 
seq. y)more philosophically by Creuzer, (Symbolek, pp. 168 etseq.,) and 
by various travellers and observers of ancient remains in many lands. 
Sir Robert Ker Porter mentions the hieroglyph of a cross, accompa- 
nied by cuneiform inscriptions, which he saw on a stone among the ruins 
of Susa. (Travels, vol. ii, p. 414.) Prescott mentions its occurrence 
among the objects of worship in the idol temples of Anahuac, (Con- 
quest of Mexico, vol. iii, pp. 338-340.) It was found on the temple 
of Serapis at Alexandria, which fact was urged by the pagan 
priests to induce Theodosius not to destroy that building. (Socrates, 
Eccl. Hist., v, 17.) It was probably a Nilometer, or perhaps the so- 
called " Key of the Nile," frequently held in the hand of Egyptian 
deities as the emblem of life, or the symbol of Venus, probably of 
phallic significance. (Tertul., Apol., c, 16.) It is found also on Babylo- 
nian cylinders, on Phoenician and Etruscan remains, and among the 
Brahminical and Buddhist antiquities of India and China. (Med- 
hurst's China, p. 217.) It was also the sign of the Hammer of 
Thor, by which he smote the great serpent of the Scandinavian 
mythology. On rather slender evidence S. Baring-Gould attributes 
its use to the pre-historic lake-dwellers of Switzerland. It was also 
found, he asserts, combined with certain ichthyic representations in a 
mosaic floor of pre-Christian date, near Pau in France, in 1850. This 
example was probably post-Christian. 



282 The Catacombs of Rome. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BIBLICAL CYCLE OF THE CATACOMBS. 

The " Circlo Biblico," or Biblical Cycle, of the Cata- 
combs, as De Rossi has called it, partakes of the same 
symbolical character as their other art-creations. It 
has, for the most part, a twofold object : first, the 
literal presentation of certain historical events; and, 
„second, a typical or allegorical reference to the spiritual 
truths of Christianity, especially to the cardinal doc- 
trines of the sacrifice, resurrection, and ascension of 
Our Lord. The range of this art cycle comprehends 
the grand drama of redemption, from the fall of man 
to his restoration through the greater Man, Christ 
Jesus ; with the careful avoidance, however, of the 
scenes of the passion, which are nowhere exhibited 
except under the veil of allegory or symbol. These 
numerous and varied biblical representations imply a 
remarkable familiarity of the primitive Christians with 
the holy scriptures, in striking contrast with the prev- 
alent ignorance of these sacred books in the papal 
Rome of to-day. Indeed, these storied crypts must 
have been a grand illustrated gospel, impressing upon 5 
the mind of the believer the lessons of holy writ, and 
probably furnishing to the catechumens of the faith 
and recent converts from paganism a means of instruc- 
tion in these sacred themes. The execution may often 
be coarse, and the drawing uncouth ; but to the devout 
mind this primitive Christian art is invested with a 



The Biblical Cycle. 283 

profoundgr interest than all the triumphs of genius in 
the galleries of the Vatican.* 

In consequence of its symbolical purpose this hier- 
atic series is rather eclectic than cyclopaedic in its 
character. Of the great variety of available topics, 
the number selected for art-presentation was compar- 
atively limited ; and the artist, in the treatment of these, 
frequently contented himself with the constant and un- 
varied reiteration of the same types, which were often 
of the rudest and most conventional form. " The in- 
cidents that exemplified the leading doctrines of the 
faith," says Kugler,f " were chosen in preference to 
others." Hence the very fixedness of these doctrines 
imparted somewhat of their own character to the pic- 
torial representations employed. 

Subjects from the Old Testament are more numerous 
in proportion to the whole than would have been 
anticipated. This is also a result and illustration of 
the allegorical nature of the series. " Rome," says Lord 
Lindsay, " seems to have adopted from the first, and 
steadily adhered to, a system of typical parallelism — ■ 
of veiling the great incidents of redemption, and the 
sufferings, faith, and hopes of the church under the 
parallel and typical events of the patriarchal and Jew- 
ish dispensations." J We can refer in detail to only 
the more striking of these biblical scenes. For 



* In the bas reliefs of Chartres Cathedral and in other medisev.il 
churches, a biblical cycle somewhat analogous in character to that 
of the Catacombs is represented. In the former case the whole 
drama of time from the creation of the world to the last judgment 
is set forth in a series of pictures in stone comprising 1,800 figures, 
often with a touching naivete and simple grace. 

f Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte. 

% History of Christian Art, vol. i, p. 47. 



284 The Catacombs of Rome. 

convenience of treatment we will include here those 
sculptured on the sarcophagi as well as those painted on 
the walls. The temptation and fall of our first parents 
is a frequent subject, and meets with considerable va- 
riety of treatment.* They are generally shown as 
standing by the tree of knowledge, around which the 
serpent coils, and receiving from him the fruit 

" Whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world and all our woe." 

In the following example from the Catacomb of Cal- 
lixtus, the fig-leaf aprons with which they try to hide 
their guilty shame indicate that the act of disobedience 
has been already consummated. 




Fig. 62.— The Temptation and Fall. 

* In an ivory diptych, probably of the fourth century, which is fig- 
ured in Marriott's Testimony of the Catacombs, is a veiy spirted bas 
relief of Adam in the garden giving the beasts their names. 



The Biblical Cycle 



285 



On a sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum is a bas 
relief in which Our Lord, as the representative of the 
Eternal Father, is seen standing between Adam and Eve, 
and giving to the former a sheaf of grain, the symbol that 
by the sweat of his brow he should eat bread, and to 
the latter a lamb, that she may work diligently with hei 
hands in the domestic employment of spinning — the 
allotted labour of woman in every age. Perhaps, also, 
as Dr. Northcote suggests, the lamb was a symbol and 
mute prophecy of " the Lamb of God whom the sec- 
ond Eve was to bring forth to atone for all the evil 
that the first Eve had brought upon mankind." 



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Fig?. 63.— Adam and Eve Receiving their Sentence. 

On another sarcophagus in the same museun. is a 
bas relief of Cain and Abel offering their respective 
sacrifices of the fruits of the ground and the firstlings 
of the flock. This subject, however, is exceedingly 
rare in the Catacombs. 



2S6 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



One of the most frequently recurring figures in this 
series is that of Noah in the ark. This is always re- 
peated in one unvarying phase of the most jejune and 
meagre character. There is no attempt at historical 
representation of the actual scenes of the deluge. In- 
stead of a huge vessel riding upon the waves, with its 
vast and varied living freight, there is only a small pul- 
pit-like enclosure,* in which Noah stands and receives 
in his hand the returning dove with the olive branch in 
its mouth. The following engraving, which, although 
apparently out of perspective, is an accurate copy of a 
painting in the Catacomb of Callixtus, is a character- 
istic example. 




Fig. 64— Noah in the Ark. 

Occasionally the position of the patriarcii is slightly 
altered, as in Fig. 65, from the Catacomb of St. Priscilla ; 



* Is there any allusion here to Noah as a "preacher of righteous 
ness ? " 



The Biblical Cycle. 



2S7 



but this is all the variety 
of treatment of which the 
artistic genius of the age 
seemed capable. 

In the bas reliefs the 
treatment of this subject 
exhibits a still greater de- 
gree of degradation and 
constraint, as in the fol- 
lowing examples from 
Christian sarcophagi of the 
fourth century. 

Sometimes the figure lu- 
dicrously resembles the 
toy called " Jack in a box," 
which resemblance is 




Fig. 65— Noah in the Ark. 



heightened by the lid being half open and a lock being 
carved on the front. 





66— Noah in the Ark. 



This rude representation, however, was regarded, in 
accordance with the exposition of St. Peter,* as a sym- 

* I Pet. iii, 20, 21. The dove is the symbol, says Tertullian, of the 
Holy Spirit bringing the peace of God after the mystical lustratioD 
of the soul in baptism. — De Baptismo, vii. 



288 



The Catacombs of Rome, 



bol of Christian baptism ; while the ark was the figure 
of Christ's church, in which believers "may so pass the 
waves of this troublesome world that finally they may 
come to the land of everlasting life." The dove and 
olive branch may further imply, that the weary soul, 
being justified by faith, found peace with God and en 
tered into endless rest.* 

Another favourite subject of 
the early Christian artists was 
the sacrifice of Isaac, an ap- 
propriate type of the greater! 
sacrifice to be offered up when,! 
in the fulness of the time, God 
should provide himself a lamb 
for an offering. From this theme 
the persecuted Christians doubt- 
less often derived spiritual com- 
fort amid the fiery trials of their faith to which they 
were exposed. It taught also the duty of self-conse- 
cration. " May I, like the youthful Isaac," says Paulinus, 
" be offered to God a living sacrifice, and, bearing my 
wood, follow my Holy Father beneath the cross." f This 
subject is repeated, with considerable variety of treat- 
ment, both in frescoes and in sculpture. In Fig. 68, 
from the cemetery of St. Priscilla, Isaac is seen bearing 




Pig. 67 — Apamean 
Medal. 



* It is difficult to conceive how such a wide departure from his- 
toric truth took place in these representations. It has been suggested 
that they were copied from some pre-existing type, upon which this 
form was imposed by the conditions of space in which it was exe- 
cuted. Such a type occurs in the celebrated Apamean medals, of 
date A. D. 193-211. See Fig. 67. It probably commemorated the 
Deucalion deluge ; and the design was apparently modified by the 
Christian artists to represent the preservation of Noah. 
f Hostia viva Deo tanquam puer offerar Isaac, 
Et mea ligna geiens, sequar almum sub cruce patrem. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



289 




Fig. 68— The Sacrifice of Isaac. 

the wood for the sacrifice. In Fig. 69, from the Cata- 
comb of Marcellinus, he is already bound, and Abraham 
has stretched forth his hand to slay his son, while the 
divinely substituted lamb appears from behind the altar. 




Fig. 69— The Sacrifice of Isaac. 

In several examples a hand stretched forth from on 
high seizes the knife to prevent the consummation of 
the sacrifice. (See Fig. 107.) It is recorded that 
Gregory of Nyssa frequently shed tears on reading 
this pathetic story. 

Joseph, sold by his brethren and afterward saving 
them alive, was a striking type of Him who redeemed 
19 



2l)0 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



with his own blood the guilty race which caused his death. 
It is, therefore, a subject that appears with peculiar pro- 
priety among the tombs of the primitive Christians. 

Several scenes from the life of Moses are delineated 
in this biblical cycle. One of these, as sometimes 
treated, for classic grace and dignity reminds one of 
some noble antique. It is Moses on Mount Horeb 
putting off his shoes from his feet. This act is inter- 
preted by some of the Christian Fathers* as an emblem 
of the renunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil 
demanded of the servants of Christ. The accompany- 
ing example, Fig. 70, is from the cemetery of Callixtus. 





Fig. 70— Moses on Mount 
Horeb. 



Fig. 71.— Moses Receiving tho 
Law. 



Fig. 71, from a sarcophagus in the Lateran, represents 
Moses on Mount Sinai receiving from the hand of God 
the law, which was to be the schoolmaster to brim* 



* E. g., Greg. Nazianz., Orat. 42. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



291 



men to Christ. Moses is sometimes exhibited, also, as 
breaking the tables of the law on his descent from the 
mount. 

In the Catacomb of St. Cyriaca is a unique picture 
of the descent of the manna — the emblem of the 
"True Bread which came down from heaven." It is 
seen falling in a copious shower, and gathered in the 
vestments of four Israelites. According to Martigny 
the accompanying engraving, Fig. 72, from the Cata- 
comb of St. Priscilla, and another in the Callixtan Cata- 
comb, represent Moses standing among the baskets of 
manna gathered in the wilderness. But for the severe 
and aged expression of countenance, so different from 
the youthful aspect of Our Lord in the frescoes of the 
Catacombs, they might be taken for pictures of Christ 




Pig. 72.— Moses and the Bas- 
kets of Manna. 



Fig. 73.— Moses Striking the 
Rock. 



and the seven baskets of fragments left after feeding 
the multitude. 



292 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



More frequently recurring than any other scene in 
the history of Moses is that of his striking water 
from the rock, an emblem of the spiritual blessings 
flowing to the church through the sufferings of the 
Messiah, " For they drank of that spiritual Rock which 
followed them; and that Rock was Christ."* The 
illustration in Fig. 73 is taken from a sarcophagus found 
in the cemetery of St. Agnes. That in Fig. 74 is from 
a fresco of earlier date in the Catacomb of Marcel- 
linus. 




Fig 1 . 74 — Moses Striking the Rock. 

In two or three of the gilded glasses to be hereafter 
mentioned, which are of comparatively late date, this 
scene is rudely indicated, and over the head or at 
the side of the figure is the word Petrvs or Peter. 
From this circumstance Roman Catholic writers have 
asserted that in many of the sarcophagal and other rep- 
resentations of this event it is no longer Moses but 
Peter, " the leader of the new Israel of God," who is 
striking the rock with the emblem of divine power — a 
* 1 Cor. x, 4. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



293 




Fig. 75— The Sufferings of 
Job. 



conclusion for which there is absolutel) no evidence 
except the very trivial fact above mentioned.* 

The sufferings of the pa- 
triarch Job form the sub- 
ject of a few of these scrip- 
tural illustrations. In the 
accompanying illustration, 
taken from the cemetery 
of Marcellinus, he is seen 
sitting in his sorrow and be- 
moaning the day that gave 
him birth. Amid their fiery 
trials of persecution the 
primitive Christians doubt- 
less often found comfort in 
contrasting their sufferings 
with the still more terrible afflictions of the patriarch 
of Uz. 

The sarcophagus of Junius Bassus exhibits a bas 
relief of Job comforted by his friends. The complaint 
of the patriarch that even his wife had abhorred his 
breath — so reads the Vulgate translation of Jerome, 
which was in use at this period — is grotesquely illustra- 

* Paulinus of Nola, in the beginning of the fifth century, describes 
in spirited lines certain paintings analogous to those of which we 
have been speaking, but including some subjects not treated in the 
Catacombs. Among these are the passage of the Red Sea and the 
destruction of Pharaoh and his host, Joshua and the ark of God, 
Samson bearing away the gates of Gaza, the Israelites crossing 
Jordan, and the pathetic episode of Ruth and her sister-in-law, the 
one following and the other forsaking the stricken Naomi, the 
emblem, as the worthy bishop remarks, of mankind, part deserting, 
part adhering to the true faith : 

Ruth sequitur sanctam, quam deserit Orpa, parentem ; 

Perfidiam nurus una, fidem minis altera monstrat. 

Pnefert una Deum patriae, patriam altera vitre. 



294 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ted by a female figure, who holds a handkerchief lo her 
nose.* 

The victory of the stripling David over the great 
champion of the enemies of Israel seemed strikingly to 
prefigure the triumph of primitive Christianity over the 
colossal paganism to which it was opposed. It was also 
the symbol of the victory of Our Lord over a mightiei 
foe than the insolent Philistine ; and by some of the 
Fathers the stones and sling of the Jewish shepherd lad 
were likened to the cross of Christ, by which Satan is 
vanquished and his kingdom overthrown. The devout 
monarch of Israel was also a recognized type of Him 
who was the root and the offspring of David, who should 
inherit his throne, and reign over the house of Jacob 
forever. 

The translation of Elijah was frequently depicted 
as being typical of the ascension of Our Lord, which 
was regarded as too sacred a theme for direct present- 
ment in art. The chariot generally resembles the 
classic quadriga. In a sarcophagal example in the 
Lateran Museum Elisha is represented as reverently 
receiving the mantle of Elijah, the emblem of the 
double measure of his spirit that rested upon him. In 
the background two sons of the prophets gaze with 
apparent astonishment on the scene. Two bears, which 
are also indicated, are probably intended for those that 
devoured the' children who mocked the prophet Elisha 
on his way to Bethel. 

*Job xix, 17. This subject is also fantastically treated in Me- 
dieval art. In a Byzantine MS. of the ninth or tenth century Job 
is exhibited as sitting in lugubrious melancholy amid the ruins of 
his house, while Satan is dancing before him in fiendish joy over the 
desolation he has caused, and is torturing his victim with a red-hot 
goad. Didron., Iconog. Chret., p. 158. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



295 



In Fig. 76, from a fresco of earlier date in the Cat- 
acomb of Callixtus, it will be seen that graves have 
been made in the back of the arcosolium, cutting off the 
head of Elijah and the feet .of the two lower figures. 

According to the 
strained mode of in- 
terpretation of Roman 
Catholic writers on this 
subject, the gift of the 
mantle of Elijah to his 
successor in office is 
a type of Christ's be- 
stowment of authority 
upon St. Peter as the 
" Prince of the Apos- 
tles," and his espe- 
cial representative on 
earth. " It would cer- 
tainly," says Dr.North- 
cote, " have reminded 
the Roman Christians 
of the pallium, the 
symbol of jurisdiction 
worn by the bishops 
of Rome, and given 
by them to metropol- 
itans as from the very 
body of St. Peter— De 
Cor pore Sancti Petri." * 




A more improbable assumption 



* Roma Sotterranea, i, 310. The newly elected pope receives the 
investiture with the words, " Receive the pallium, to wit, the fullness 
of the apostle's office." Pallia are sent to foreign bishops from tlie 
tomb of St. Peter, and those who receive them keep them " in obse- 
quium Petri " — in obedience and devotion to Peter. 



296 The Catacombs of Rome. 

it would be difficult to imagine. Nobler in conception, 
which, as well as more scriptural, is the interpretation of 
this type given by St. Chrysostom : " Elias, in ascending 
into heaven, let his mantle fall on Elisha : Jesus, when 
he, too, ascended thither, left the gift of his graces to 
his disciples — graces which constitute not merely a 
single prophet, but an infinite number of Elishas, much 
greater and more illustrious than that one."* 

The persecuted saints who dared to encounter death 
and danger in their most dreadful forms rather than 
deny their faith, found great consolation in the remem- 
brance of God's deliverance of his servants in the days 
of old. With the bloodthirsty cry of the ribald plebs 
of Rome — Christiani ad hones — still ringing in their ears, 
and, it may be, with the roar of the savage beasts of 
prey crashing on their shuddering nerves, they were 
sustained by the thought of the fidelity of those ancient 




Fig. 77 — The Three Hebrew Children, 
worthies who, for their integrity to God, braved the 
flames of the fiery furnace and the perils of the lions' 
den. The three Hebrew children are generally exhib- 
ited with the oriental tiara and tunics. In the forego- 
* Horn, ii, In Ascens. Dom. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



297 



ing example from the cemetery of St. Priscilla, a dove is 
shown bringing au «>live branch, the pledge of victory 
and peace. 

In Fig. 78, from the cemetery of Hermes, they are 
shown as standing in a " burning fiery furnace," whose 
flame-:, though heated seven times hotter than their 
wont, play lambently around them without even singe- 
ing their garments. 




Fig. 78— The Three Hebrew Children. 

In the following example from the Catacomb of St. 
Agnes the furnace is reduced to a shallow vessel in 
which the Hebrews stand unhurt. This has been incor- 
rectly interpreted as a representation of martyrdom by 
boiling in oil. Its association, however, with the figure 
of Daniel in the lions' den, and its general resemblance 
to other groups of the same subject, unquestionably 




The Catacombs of Rome. 

indicate its true 
character. 

In all these the 
expression of 
countenance and 
attitude of the im- 
mortal t h r e e — 

t,- „^ mi . m ,_ „ t ™_„ , more dauntless 

Fig. 79— The Three Hebrew Children. 

than even the 

brave Horatii of classic story — as they stand calmly 

amid the flames, indicates the presence with them in 

their fiery trial of the Almighty Deliverer of" his saints. 

It is noteworthy, however, that the fourth figure, " like 

the Son of God," is never shown in these groups. It 

was reserved, as will be hereafter seen, for mediaeval art 

to attempt the representation of the Divine. 

The faith and heroism of many of the primitive Chris- 
tians in refusing to burn incense on the heathen altars, 
or to salute the statues of the Caesars, was no unworthy 
imitation of the fidelity of these Hebrew youths in 
refusing to worship the great golden image set up on the 
plains of Dura. 

Daniel in the den is generally represented by a nude 
figure standing between two lions, with his hands 
stretched out as if in supplication, and thereby, says 
St. Gregory, conquering the lions by prayer. While, 
generally, the type of the deliverance of God's people, 
it may sometimes by association have been a memorial 
of the Christian martyrs devoured by wild beasts in the 
neighbouring Coliseum, whose sands were so often 
drenched with their gore. The following fresco from 
the Catacomb of St. Priscilla is a characteristic ex- 
ample. See Fig. 80. 

Sometimes another figure, interpreted as "the prophet 



The Biblical Cycle. 



299 



Habaocuc," is depicted as borne by an angel by the hair 
of the head and offering food to Daniel, as described 




Fig. 80— Daniel in the Lions' Den. 

mthe apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon. Another 
fresco represents Daniel as giving to the monster the 
cake which he had prepared for its destruction. The 
story of Tobias and the fish, and of Susanna and the 
elders, are also illustrated in this remarkable series of 
paintings. These last are of interest as indicating a 
familiar acquaintance with the apocryphal books in the 
early centuries. Figures interpreted as Isaiah, who 
seems, like the Magi, to come from afar to lay his gifts at 
the feet of Christ, and as Ezekiel in the valley of dry 
bones, also occur in the Catacombs. 

One of the most common, and, if we may judge from 
the style of execution, one of the favourite subjects 
of mural and sarcophagal presentation in this biblical 
cycle, is the history of Jonah. It is repeated over and 
over again with a high degree of picturesqueness, and with 
greater variety of treatment than, perhaps, any other. It 
appears also on lamps, vases, medals, gilt glasses, and 



300 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



funeral slabs. The story is generally represented in a 
series of four scenes : the storm, and the monster of the 
deep swallowing the prophet ; his deliverance from its 
horrid jaws, and restoration to land ; his reclining un- 
der the shadow of the gourd for refreshment and rest ; 
and his gloom and anger when the gourd has withered 
away and he lies in his misery beneath the burning sun. 
Sometimes the four scenes occupy the four walls of the 
cubiculum, or the compartments of a vaulted ceiling; or 
only two may be exhibited, as in the engraving on the 
opposite page, from the cemetery of St. Priscilla, in 
which Jonah is portrayed as a child issuing from the 
mouth of the sea-monster, and afterward reclining under 
the booth. 

Sometimes the whole history is compressed into one 
crowded Scene, as in the following example. (Fig 8r ) 




Fig. 81— The History of Jonah. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



3d 




302 



The Catacombs of. Rome. 



The character of the little bark is much like that seen 
in pagan frescoes. 

In some instances the " ship " is reduced to a mere 
boat, and the " mariners ' to a single individual, as in 
Fig. 83, from the cemetery of St. Priscilla. 




Fig. 83.— Jonah Swallowed by the " Great Fish." 

In the following sarcophagal example, (Fig. 84,) the 
somewhat startling anachronism of Noah receiving the 
dove from the prow of Jonah's vessel appears in the 




Fig 1 . 84.— Noah and Jonah. 



background. The " sea " is here a narrow stream ; 
and the "fish," a monster with the head and paws of a 



The Biblical Cycle. 303 

quadruped, on one side of the boat is swallowing the 
disobedient prophet, and on the other is casting him 
forth upon the rocky shores. Such solecisms are by no 
means uncommon in these groups. 

On another-sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum the in- 
fluence of pagan thought may be observed. The storm 
is personified by a triton blowing through a convoluted 
shell, and Iris, hovering with floating scarf above the 
vessel, indicates the calm which followed the casting 
out of the prophet. 

The " great fish " in these scenes bears no resemblance 
to any living thing. It is generally a monster with con- 
torted body, a long neck and large head, sometimes 
armed with horns, (see Figs. 81, 82,) probably to distin- 
guish it from the symbolical fish, the emblem of Our 
Lord, or as a type of " the old serpent, the devil." The 
form may have been derived from the mythological rep- 
resentations of the marine monster from whose jaws 
Andromeda was rescued by Perseus. The latter story, 
like that of Deucalion and many others in the Greek 
mythology, probably had its origin in holy scripture. 

This subject was naturally dear to the early Chris- 
tians, inasmuch as it was set forth by Our Lord himself 
as a type of his own resurrection and that of his disciples. 
Therefore as the persecuted believers met in those sol- 
emn and silent chambers of the dead, they inscribed on 
the sepulchral slabs which hid the mouldering dust of 
the departed from their view, or on the walls of the 
cubicula in which they worshipped, this symbol of faith 
and hope in the glorious resurrection. It also conveyed 
a lesson of sublimest meaning to the primitive Chris- 
tians, called to be witnesses for God in a city greater and 
more wicked and idolatrous than even Nineveh. It was 
a potent incentive to fidelity even unto death. The 



304 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



storm-tossed bark, the ravening monster, and the proph- 
et's booth and gourd, were the types of life's rough 
voyage, the yawning grave, and the speedy transit to 
the bowers of everlasting bliss and the refreshing fruits 
of the tree of life. 

A long and acrimonious controversy was waged be- 
tween Jerome and Augustine as to the nature of the 
plant which overshadowed the prophet. Jerome called 
it ivy ; but Augustine retained the word gourd of 
the older Italic version, and excluded from his diocese 
of Hippo the Vulgate version of Jerome containing the 
obnoxious translation. It is a curious commentary on 
an ancient dispute in the church, and a proof of the 
antiquity of the Catacombs, that their frescoes seem to 
have followed the older version, and to have given their 
testimony against the innovation of Jerome. See Fig. 85, 
a copy of a broken sepulchral slab, in which the prophet's 
booth is reduced to a single branch of a gourd. 




Fig 1 . 85— Jonah's Gourd. 



Here ends this Old Testament cycle, so rich in holy 
teaching, all whose types and symbols point to the great 
Antitype of whom Moses and the prophets spake. The 
New Testament series will in like manner be found to 



The Biblical Cycle. - 305 

cluster around the person and work of the Redeemer; 
to the exclusion, however, of the solemn scenes of the 
transfiguration, the passion, resurrection, and ascen- 
sion, which are the principal themes of later religious 
art ; and without the slightest indication of that idola- 
trous veneration of Mary which is the chief feature of 
modern Romanism, thus showing how far that church 
has departed from the usage of 'apostolic times. 

The first subject of this New Testament cycle is the 
manifestation of Our Lord to the Magi by the star in 
the east, the sign that the Bright and Morning Star had 
risen upon the world.* Over twenty repetitions of this 
scene are found in the Catacombs. 

The following sarcophagal example, from the Cata- 
comb of Callixtus, represents the Magi bearing their 
gifts, and led by the star to the place where the young 




Fig\ 86.— The Adoration of the Magi. 

child lay. The babe is seen wrapped in swaddling- 
clothes and lying in a manger. An ox and an ass stand 
near the divine child, probably in fanciful allusion to 
that scripture, " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass 
his master's crib ; " as well as in historical illustration of 

* Several Romanist writers interpret, with doubtful propriety, n 
fresco in the cemetery of St. Priscilla as a representation of the Annun- 
ciation. True to its gentle genius, the art of the Catacombs passes 
over the tragical scenes of the Slaughter of the Innocents, whose 
horrors later art has delighted to portray. 
20 



306 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




Fig. 87.— Adoration of the Magi. 



the scene. Joseph and Mary appear in the background 
as mere accessories of the group. 

In the accompanying engraving of a fresco in the 
cemetery of St. Marcellinus the virgin mother is rep- 
resented as seat- 
ed in the calm at- 
titude and dress 
of a Roman ma- 
tron, holding the 
infant Christ in her 
arms, but not in the 
least suggesting 
the modern Ma- 
donna* The Ma- 
gi bring their offerings as the first-fruits of the hom- 
age of the world. Sometimes the number is increased 
to four or reduced . to two, in which case they are 
arranged on either side of the Virgin, to preserve the 
balance and symmetry of the picture. f The figure of 
Joseph sometimes completes the group, but generally 

* In the church of the Ara Cceli, at Rome, is a miraculous image 
of the infant Christ, carved, it is said, out of wood from the Mount of 
Olives, and painted by St. Luke. It is known as the Santissimo 
Bambino, or Most Holy Babe, and is taken in its state-coach to visit 
the sick. At one time it received more fees than any physician in 
Rome. Its fete is celebrated by theatrical representations of the 
scenes of the Advent. The apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy tends 
to popularize this feature of Romanism. 

■j- According to an ancient tradition mentioned by Origen and Leo the 
Great the number of the Magi was. three. In the mediaeval miracle 
plays they are called three gipsy kings, and their names are given 
as Gaspar, Melchior, and Belshazzar. 

The early Fathers all refer to the adoration of the Magi as a proof 
of the divinity of Our Lord, not as any homage to Mary. See Clem. 
Alex., Pad., ii, 8 ; Origen, c. Cels., i, p. 46 ; Chrysos., in Matt. ; 
Tus. Mar., Dial, cum Tryph. ; Iren., c. FLrr., iii, 2 ; Hieron., in Esaiam, 
vi. 19; Ambr., in Lite, ii , Aug., Epiph. Serm. 



The Biblical Cycle. 307 

as a young and beardless man, in contradiction to the 
Romish tradition of his old age, derived from the apoc- 
ryphal gospels. These legends supply the theme of 
much of the religious art of the fifth and following cen- 
turies ; but Dr. Northcote admits that " before that 
time Christian artists seem strictly to have been kept 
within the limits of the canonical books of the holy 
scripture."* 

A fresco in the Catacomb of Nereus and Achilles, 
attributed to the second century, is supposed to be tl\e 
oldest extant art-presentation of the Virgin Mary. In 
these early pictures she is generally exhibited as veiled, 

* Rom. Sott., p. 261. — One of these devout fictions, known as the 
Proto-Evangelium, and attributed to St. James, was the source of 
those legends of the early life of Mary which furnished so many sub- 
jects to Italian art. According to this tradition she was dedicated 
while yet an infant to a religious life, and remained till twelve years 
of age in the temple, where she was daily fed by angels. See an in- 
scription in Provence : MARIA VIRGO MINISTER IN TEMPLO GERO- 
sale. Later legends assert the angelic pre-annunciation of her birth 
and her immaculate conception, which has at length become a formu- 
lated dogma of the church, though contrary to the opinion of the ancient 
Fathers. (Kayes' Tertul., p. 386 and postea.) St. Joachim and St. 
Anne, her parents, are invoked in the Missal, which also asserts her 
freedom from original sin, an exemption shared only by Our Lord, 
John the Baptist, and Jeremiah. 

In her youth, says the Proto-Evangelium, Mary was consigned to 
Joseph, not for marriage, but for parental guardianship. A num- 
ber of suitors claimed her hand, but the apparition of a dove flying 
from the top of Joseph's rod indicated the divinely chosen spouse. 
In course of time, in consequence of the growing superior regard for 
celibacy, the legends of her perpetual virginity were developed, al- 
though some, at least, of the Fathers held a contrary opinion. See Ter- 
tul., De Monogamia, c. 8, and De Came Christi,c. 23 ; Neander's 
Antignostikus, Whedon's Commentary, Matt, xiii, 55. The word 
■KpuroTOKov, first-born, applied to Jesus, Matt, i, 25, implies a second 
born afterward, as in Rom. viii, 29, " first born of many brethren ; ' 
otherwise the word fiovoycvrft, only bom, would be used, as in Luke 
vii, 12 ; ix, 38. 



308 The Catacombs of Rome. 

and expressing dignity and modesty in her attitude and 
dress, and only in her historical relation to the divine 
child. Not till later does she appear alone, or even as 
the principal figure. Dr. Northcote, indeed, cites one 
example apparently of Joseph,* Mary, and the infant 
Jesus, concerning which he says that the Virgin does not 
enter into the composition as a secondary personage, 
but herself supplies the motive to the whole painting, f 
In the engraving which he gives, this indeed appears to 
be the case ; but in the original, and in the copy given by 
De Rossi,J which shows the entire painting, the figure of 
the Virgin is only a very small and subordinate portion 
of an elaborate decorative design, and its position is not 
upright, as if it were the principal object, but horizontal, 
as being only accessory to the main grouping. All these 
early presentations of the Virgin Mary, says Mr. Mar- 
riott, § occur only in such connexion as is directly sug- 
gested by holy scripture, and none of them would 
appear out of place in an illustrated English Bible, 
so different are they from the Madonnas of Roman 
Catholic art. 

There are numerous frescoes in the Catacombs of 
persons, both male and female, in the attitude of prayer, 
hence called Ora?iti, (see Fig. 82,) and the accompany- 
ing simpler example from the cemetery of Sts. Peter 
and Marcellinus. These are frequently found on sepul- 
chral slabs, the sex and apparent age of. the Orante 
always corresponding with that of the person named in 
the inscription. They are generally regarded, therefore, 

* De Rossi and some other writers call this figure Isaiah without 
any good reason. 

f Rom. Sott., p. 260. 

\ Imagines Selectee Deipara Virginis, pi. iv. This picture is 
thought to be of the sixth century. 

^ Test, of Catacombs, p. 27. 



The Biblical Cycle 



305 



as portraits of the departed, and as probably indicat- 
ing that they lived a life of prayer, and died in the 
faith. Thus the oranti, in Fig. 82 are thought by Per- 
ret to be intended for Pris- 
cilla, in whose cemetery it 
is found, and her com- 
panion.* It is at least most 
likely that they represented 
the deceased and not anoth- 
er, in the same manner as 
modern sepulchral effigies, 
and as the pictures of fos- 
sors, vine-dressers, and 
handicraftsmen in the Cat- 
acombs. Dr. Northcote at 
one time admitted this ex- 
planation of these figures. 
"We can scarcely err," he 
says, "in supposing them 
to be the persons, whoever 
they were, who were buried 
in these chambers, "f But 
in his later work on the 
Catacombs he says, "Pos- 




Fig\ 88— Orante. 



sibly this conjecture may sometimes be correct, but in 
the majority of instances we feel certain that it is inad- 
missible; "J and he claims them as representations 
of the Virgin Mary, or as symbols of the Church, the 
Bride of Christ, whose life on earth is a life of prayer. 
This is manifestly the intention, he asserts, when, as 

* One of these has a saffron-coloured robe, and soft brown eyes and 
hair. The other wears a deep crimson robe with purple stripes. Both 
are richly embroidered and bejeweled. 

f Northcote's Catacombs, p. 77. \ Rom. Soft., p. 255. 



310 The Catacombs of Rome. 

is frequently the case, the figure is found as a companion 
to that of the Good Shepherd ; and he gives an engrav- 
ing from Bosio of one such, which is catalogued as the 
"Good Shepherd and the Blessed Virgin."* But in 
referring to Bosio this figure is found to be not the 
Virgin Mary at all, but a Christian martyr, as is indi- 
cated by the attribute of a plumbata, or leaden scourge, 
painted beside her, which is omitted in Dr. Northcote's 
engraving, (inadvertently, as he explains ;) and she is 
designated by Bosio, Una Donna Oranie — a woman in the 
act of prayer. And this figure is the only one out of all 
figured by Bosio and Aringhi which at all agrees with 
Dr. Northcote's description. The others when associ- 
ated with the Good Shepherd are either in groups of 
two or more, or are mixed with male oi-anti, the exist- 
ence of which Dr. Northcote seems to ignore. 

But even' if the Virgin Mary were referred to in 
these paintings it would prove nothing in favour of 
modern Mariolatry. Indeed, nothing could be more 
striking than the contrast between these simple praying 
figures, undistinguished by any attribute from others of 
the pious dead, and the crowned Queen of Heaven re- 
ceiving the homage of mankind, of later Roman Cath- 
olic art. But that they are such is an entirely gratuitous 
and unwarranted assumption ; and with equal propriety, 
or rather lack of it, they have been interpreted by 
the monkish ciceroni of the Catacombs as symbols of 
martyrdom, as portraits of living persons praying to the 
dead, and as saints in heaven praying foi men on earth. f 

* Rom. Soft . pi. viii. 

f The circumstance above mentioned is another evidence that no 
logical nor historical difficulties are any obstacle to the devout ere-, 
dulity of Rome, in discovering proofs of its favourite dogmas where a 
rational criticism is unable to find them. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



3ii 



In the gilded glasses, to be hereafter described, which 
Delong to a period of very degraded art, probably from 
the fourth to the sixth century, representations of the 
Virgin mother 
sometimes occur, 
recognized by her 
name written above 
her head after the 
Byzantine manner. 
She appears either 
alone, or between 
figures of the 
apostles Peter and 
Paul. This honour, 
however, is shared 
by other female 
saints, especially by 
Saint Agnes. In 
one example Mary 
wears a nimbus, a 
proof of compara- 
tively late date. 

One fresco in the 
Catacomb of Sts. 
Thraso and Satur- 
ninus has been sup- 
posed to have some 
reference to the 
Virgin Mary. It is 

figured in the lu- 

r ,, .. Fig. 89.— Supposed Madonna, 

nette of the vault 

in the accompanying engraving. (Fig. 89.)"* It is inter- 

* These figures are given in minute detail in Perret., torn, iii, 

planches 16 to 20. On the arch and on the other lunettes will be 




3 1 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

preted, however, by Bottari, a distinguished Romanist 
antiquary, as not a painting of the Madonna at all, but 
simply of a family group. 

The first art-presentation of the Virgin Mary bearing 
any resemblance to the conventional Madonna, which 
has been so endlessly reproduced and so idolatrously 
honoured throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, is 
one in an arcosolium in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, 




Fig. 90.— The Earliest Madonna. 

(See Fig. 90.) The head of the Virgin is veiled, a neck- 
lace of pearls adorns her person, and her hands are 
extended in prayer. The infant Christ is not seated, 
but standing before her, as is common in a favour- 
ite type of the Greek church, especially in Russia — 
an indication that this was probably painted by a 
Byzantine artist, as was most of the later work at 
Rome. But even in this picture the early Chris- 
tians, unprescient of the Mariolatry of the future, would 
see the expression only of a loving regard for her who 

seen the " great fish " and the prophet Jonah, the Good Shepherd 
bearing a goat, not a lamb, on his shoulders, and the ever-recurring 
peacocks and doves. 



The Biblical Cycle. 313 

was pronounced the "blessed among women." The 
sacred monogram on either side assigns a date not 
earlier than the fourth century to this painting; and 
Martigny, an eminent Romanist authority, thinks it is 
later than the Council of Ephesus, in the fifth century, 
—A. D. 431. 

By this time a sad departure from primitive ortho- 
doxy of belief had already taken place. The blasphe- 
mous title Theotokos, Mother of God, since so unhappily 
familiar,* had been applied to the Virgin Mary, at first 
in protest against . the Arian heresy which denied the 
divinity of Our Lord, and not in exaltation of his vir- 
gin mother. Nestorius strongly objected to the un- 
warranted and antiscriptural title, and suggested that 
of the mother of Christ. An angry controversy re- 
sulted, to appease which Theodosius the younger 
assembled the Council of Ephesus. Nestorius was 
judged without being heard, degraded from the episco- 
pal dignity, and sent into exile ; and the obnoxious 
epithet was confirmed through the exercise of fraud and 
violence. Flavianus, a member of the Council, actually 
died of wounds received in that turbulent assembly ; 
and amid these disgraceful scenes was first formu- 
lated this dogma, which has been fraught with such 
perilous consequences to both Greek and Latin 
Christianity. 

The artistic embodiment of this doctrine underwent 
a rapid decline. The sweet and tender grace of the 
virgin mother disappears, the modest veil gives place 
to a crown, she becomes vulgarized in expression, jew- 
els bedizen her person, the attitude becomes stiff and 
lifeless, the countenance darkens and assumes an ex- 

* In Byzantine art, pictures of the Virgin Mary are generally in- 
scribed with the letters MP 9T for MHTHP GEOT— Mother of God. 



314 The Catacombs of Rome. 

pression of pain rather than that of gentleness and 
peace, and the innocent smile of the Divine Infant 
gives place to an unnatural severity and gloom. The 
beginning of this decline is seen in the Madonna already 
described, (Fig. 90,) in which the person of Mary is 
adorned with a showy necklace of jewels. This type 
passes by rapid gradations, during the gathering gloom 
of the dark ages, into the anguished pictures of the 
Mater Dolorosa, bowed down with sevenfold sorrows, 
and the gross images of Our Lady of the Bleeding 
Heart, her bosom transpierced with a naked sword.* 
But even in this is seen the striking moral contrast be- 
tween the spirit of Christian and that of pagan art. The 
loftiest ideal of the latter is the expression of mere cor- 
poreal beauty, while the former exhibits the noblest type 
of purity, sorrow, and love the world has ever seen. 
With the Renaissance this ideal became the inspiration 
of art, and gave birth to those triumphs of genius which 
kindle admiration in the coldest nature, and invest with 
a spell of pathos and power a dogma which the judg- 
ment rejects. 

The silence of the primitive Fathers concerning the 
worship of Mary is a striking evidence of its non-exist- 
ence, and their language when they do speak of ^her 
still more strongly demonstrates that fact. Tertullian 
seems to infer her lack of faith in the mission of Our 
Lord, and compares her unfavourably with Martha and 
Mary.f Prudentius refuses to ascribe to her absolute 



* A literal interpretation of the Scripture : " Yea, a sword shall 
pierce through thine own soul also." — Luke ii, 35. 

\ Mater eeque non demonstratur adhsesisse illi, cum Martha? et 
Marine alise in commercio ejus frequentantur. Hoc denique in loco 
(Luke viii, 20) apparet incredulitas eorum cum is doceret viam vitae. 
— De Came Chiisti, c. 7. 



The Biblical Cycle. 315 

sinlessness.* Augustine asserts the natural depravity 
of her flesh. f Chrysostom boldly accuses her of ambi- 
tion and thoughtlessness,! and says, " She shall have no 
benefit from being the mother of Christ unless in all 
things she doeth what is right." § Cyril of Alexandria, 
Basil of Caesarea, and Hilary of Poitiers, speak in simi- 
lar unequivocal terms, which Petavius, the Roman the- 
ologian, says are not fit to be uttered. || The Collyri- 
dian heretics, indeed, rendered idolatrous homage to 
Mary ; "f but Epiphanius vehemently denounces the prac- 
tice as blasphemous and dangerous to the soul. " Let 
Mary be held in honour," he says, " but let her not be 
worshipped."** Irenseus first points out the fanciful 
antithesis between Mary and Eve, which was afterward 
so remarkably elaborated in Roman thought and dic- 

* Solus labe caret peccati conditor orbis, 
Ingenitus genitusque Deus, Pater et Patre natus. 

— Apotheosis, 894. 

f Nee sumpsit [Christus] carnem peccati quamvis de materna 
carne peccati. — DePeccatorum Meritis et Remissione, lib. i, c. 24. He 
further beautifully says : Solus unus est qui sine peccato natus est 
in similitudine carnis peccati, sine peccato vixit inter aliena peccata 
sine peccato mortuus est propter nostra peccata. — Ibid., c. 35. 

\ 4>i?MTi{iia kcu dixovota. — Horn, in Matt., xii, 47. 

§ See the words of Our Lord on this very subject, Luke xi, 28 : 
"Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and 
keep it." 

I " Infanda." — Theol. Dogmat. de Incarn., lib. xiv, c. i. 

\ These heretics receive their name from the KoXkvpa, or cake, 
which they offered to the deified Virgin. Thus early was a new pa- 
ganism substituted for that which was passing away. In modern 
Rome, cook-shops are dedicated to Mary under the title of " Our 
Lady of Cakes and Sugar-Plums," thus literally " baking cakes to 
the Queen of heaven," like the idolaters of Palestine denounced by 
the prophet. Madame de Stael has truly said, " The Catholic is the 
Pagan's heir." 

** Iren. adv. ILereses, lib. iii, c. 33 ; lib. v, c. 19. 



316 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tion.* Ephraem Syrus and Gregory Nazianzen, indeed, 
speak of her invocation in prayer, but this was an honour 
already bestowed on numerous other saints. The hea- 
then writers, moreover, who accused the Christians of 
worshipping a mere man, as they considered Christ, 
would surely have brought a similar accusation on ac- 
count of the worship of Mary if it were known ; but 
we nowhere find that this was done. Indeed, it is prob- 
able that the contumely and opprobrium with which 
the heathen spoke of the mother of Our Lord may 
have intensified into superstitious veneration the loving 
reverence with which she was regarded in the primitive 
ages. Tertullian quotes the blasphemous pagan epithet, 
"the harlot's son," applied to Christ in allusion to his 
miraculous birth. f It has been reserved for a gifted 
modern poet, as pagan and skeptical in sentiment as 
Lucretius, to parallel, or even surpass, this revolting 
impiety.J 

The testimony of the early Christian inscriptions is 
not less strikingly opposed to the modern Mariolatry of 
the church of Rome. " In the Lapidarian Gallery," 
says Maitland, " the name of the Virgin Mary does not 
once occur. Nor is it to be found in any truly ancient 
inscription contained in the works of Aringhi, Boldetti, 
or Bottari."§ No Ave Maria or Ora pro nobis, no 
Theotokos or Mater Dei, occurs in any of the subterra- 
nean crypts or corridors of the Catacombs. Even the 
name Maria, now so commonly applied in varying forms 

* See the hymn in the office of the Virgin : 

Quod Eva tristis abstulit 

Tu reddis almo germine. 
Compare also the " Ave maris stella." 

f De Spectaculis, c. 30. \ See Shelley's Notes to Queen Mab. 
§ Maitland, p. 333. 



The Biblical Cycle. 317 

to both males and females throughout Roman Catholic 
countries, does not occur till the year 381, and only 
twice afterward, in 536 and 538 — an evidence of the 
entire absence of that devotional regard now lavished 
upon the Virgin Mary.* 

This religious homage was only gradually developed 
tc its present full-blown idolatry. Its traces in early 
Christian art are extremely infrequent and obscure. In 
the numerous mosaics of the fifth and sixth century at 
Rome and Ravenna, the figure of Mary very rarely 
occurs, and never but as accessory to the Divine Child 
in the Nativity or Adoration of the Magi. In these 
there was no attempt at literal portraiture, but only the 
expression of the virtues that adorned her character ; 
"that," as Ambrose expresses it, "the face might be 
the image of her mind, the model of uprightness." f 
Indeed, Augustine expressly asserts that we are ignorant 
of her appearance. J 

During the seventh century, along with a progressive 
barbarism of treatment may be observed a gradual ex- 
altation of Mary in the Roman mosaics to those places 
previously devoted to the image of Christ.§ In the eighth 

* The letters B. M., so frequently recurring in sepulchral inscrip- 
tions, have no reference to the Virgin Mary. They stand for Bene 
Merenti — To the well-deserving, or Bona Memorice — Of pious 
memory. 

f Ut ipsa corporis facies simulacrum fuerit mentis, figura probitatis 
— De Virgin., lib. ii, c. 2. 

\ Neque enim novimus faciem Virginis Maris. — De Trin., c. 8. 

§ Armghi (torn, ii, p. 195) copies a crucifixion from the Catacomb 
of " Julii Papse," in which Mary appears crowned with a nimbus 
and bearing, after the Byzantine manner, the label Dei Genetrix — 
Mother of God. It was probably painted by a Greek artist of late 
date. The miraculous images of Mary are too numerous to mention. 
Among these are the winking Madonna of Rimini ; that of St. Peter's, 
A'hich shed blood when struck ; that of Arezzo, which wept at the 



3 1 8 The Catacombs of Rome. 

century, according to D'Agincourt, " the homage paid 
to her was no longer distinguished from that rendered 
to the Lord of all ; "* and the Council of Constantinople 
decreed, " that whoever would not avail himself of the 
intercession of Mary should be accursed."! In extant 
pi;tures of the ninth century she is exhibited in bejew- 
elled purple robes as the crowned Queen of Heaven, 
receiving the homage of the four and twenty elders and 
of the celestial hosts. J In this century also the legend 
of her bodily assumption to the skies, which has since 
become such a prominent theme in Roman Catholic art 
and doctrine, is first represented in the crypts of St. 
Clements at Rome.§ 

profanity of some drunkards ; another at Rome, which shed tears 
at the invasion of the French ; stranger still, one at Lucca, which 
transferred the infant Christ from one arm to the other to preserve 
him from danger ; and one mentioned in the Fablieux of Le Grand, 
which, when a scaffold broke, stretched forth a painted arm to rescue 
from death the artist to whom she owed her existence ! The practi- 
cal and undevout curiosity of the Czar Peter of Russia exposed the 
fraud of one of the weeping Madonnas of the Greek church by the 
detection of a reservoir of water behind her eyes. In popular legend, 
also, Mary has often come down from her throne of glory, not to com- 
municate lessons about sin and salvation, but to secure some trivial 
gain or to recover some lost money. 

* Peinture, torn, ii, p. 38. 

f Harduin, iv, 430, A. D. 712. 

\ In the church of St. Cecilia at Rome. The homagu of the Vir- 
gin was now called vwepdovXeca — the highest degree of vi neration. 

§ This legend is first mentioned by Gregory of Tours in the sixth 
century, (De Gloria Mart., lib. i, c. 4,) next by John Damascenus in 
the eighth century, but is most fully detailed in the Legenda Aurea 
in the fourteenth. Some of the earlier paintings represent with 
touching naivete the translation of the soul of Mary as a new-born in- 
fant to heaven, where it is received in the arms of her Divine Son. 
In later art the assumption is more literally represented, and Mary is 
received and crowned by the three persons of the Holy Trinity, 
while angels bear her train. Bodily assumption was also attributed 
to John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. 



The Biblical Cycle. 319 

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the apotheosis 
of Mary is complete. In a fresco at Rome, of date 
1 1 54 A. D., Popes Callixtus II. and Anastasius IV. 
are shown embracing her feet in adoration, and trans- 
ferring to the human mother the homage due alone 
to the Divine Son. She is now worshipped co-ordi- 
nately with Christ, or, indeed, almost to his exclusion, 
her name being substituted for his in many of the collects 
of the church. Much of the language of Scripture was 
also blasphemously perverted from its proper applica- 
tion to her. The glowing images of the Song of Songs, 
addressed to the church as the spouse of Christ, were 
also applied to Mary as her right ; and one of Rome's 
most common and popular books of devotion of this 
period, the psalter of her " Seraphic Doctor," St. 
Bonaventura, has a shocking parody on the book of 
Psalms, in which the name of God was every-where ex- 
punged and that of Mary substituted instead.* The 
Ave Maria, with its human additions, was regarded as 
of equal importance and value with the Lord's Prayer, 
and was made the basis of the vain repetitions of the 
rosary. Mary now shares the government of heaven 
and earth, " raised higher than cherubim and ser- 
aphim," f throned in glory, sitting on a rainbow, en- 
veloped in an aureole, clothed with the sun, the 
moon beneath her feet, a crown of stars upon her 
head, % and radiating from her person beams of light, 

* E. g., Psa. lxviii, i ; " Let Mary arise, and let her enemies be scat- 
tered." On one of the principal churches of Rome may still be 
read the awful perversion of Scripture : " Let us therefore come 
boldly to the throne of Mary, that we may obtain mercy and find 
grace to help in time of need." 

\ The expression of Modestus, patriarch of Jerusalem in the seventh 
century. 

X In allusion to the woman In the Apocalypse, xii, i. 



320 The Catacombs uf R-mie. 

the proper attribute of deity.* She is frequently rep- 
resented, even in heaven, with the infant Christ in her 
arms, a mere accessory to indicate her personality, as if 
to show his relative inferiority.f She becomes, too, her- 
self the object of prayer, having a special litany and 
numerous offices in the liturgy of the church; while 
her praises are chanted in some of its noblest lyrics. 
She is addressed as the gate of heaven, \ the morning 
star,§ and the refuge of sinners ; || and is exhorted to suc- 
cor the wretched,^ protect from enemies, receive in the 
hour of death,* * and intercede with God for men.f f She 
is endowed with the faculty of omniscience and ubiq- 
uity, and is made almost to thrust the Eternal from 
his throne by her usurpation of his divine prerogatives. \\ 
But this impious blasphemy seems to have culmi- 
nated in the Italian frescoes of the fifteenth century, 
in which the infamous Giulia Farnese is exhibited in 
the character of the Madonna, and Pope Alexander VI., 
the execrable Borgia, kneeling as a votary at her feet. 
The Florentine churches, too, were desecrated by 

* See a fresco in the Campo Santo, Pisa. 

f In the church of Gesu e Maria at Rome. 

% Janua Cceli. § Stella matutina. 

|| Refugiutn peccatorum. ^[ Succurre miseris. 

* * Tu nos ab hoste protege, et mortis hora suscipe. 

f f Ora pro populo, interveni pro clero intercede pro devoto femineo 
sexu. See also in the " Ave Maris Stella," 
Salva vincla reis, 
Prefer lumen csecis, 
Mala nostra pelle, 
Bona cuncta posce. 
See also the " Regina Cceli," and the " Ave Regina Ccelorum." 
% X She has been actually designated the Fourth Person of the 
Trinity. In Rome there are twenty-seven churches dedicated to 
Mary for one dedicated to Christ. 

" In dangers, in difficulties, in doubts," says the Roman Breviary 
" in (he abyss of sadness and despair, think of Mary, invoke Mary." 



The Biblical Cycle. 321 

portraits of well-known harlots, flaunting their mere- 
tricious beauty as the personations of the mother of Our 
Lord. For his denunciation of these profanations and 
of other impieties Savonarola perished at the stake.* 

The rapid development of Mariolatry, the great cor- 
ruption of Christianity, as Hallam has justly called it, 
may to some extent be regarded as a reaction against 
the harsh and austere character which was given to Our 
Lord both in art and dogma. He was enthroned in 
awful majesty as the dreadful Judge of mankind. Re- 
moved from human sympathy, inspiring only terror to 
the soul, he was no longer Christ the Consoler, but 
Christ the Avenger, f Religion was darkened by dismal 
bodings of endless doom, and embittered by the fierce- 
ness of polemic strife ; and the moral atmosphere 
seemed lurid with the hurtling anathemas of rival sects. 
To the yearning hearts of mankind ; to the multitude 
of the weary and the heavy laden, to whom the 
Saviour's voice, " Come unto me, and I will give you 

* In the church of S. Maria Maggiore at Rome may be seen a re- 
stored mosaic of the adoration of the Magi, in which Mary is repre- 
sented, with a golden nimbus and tunic, as sitting on a chair of state 
higher than that of the Divine Child. But in copies of the original 
mosaic of the fifth centuiy, made two centuries ago, (Ciampini, Vet. 
Mon,, i, p. 200,) Mary is standing, without any nimbus or other sign of 
honour, by the side of Christ, who, attended by angels, occupies the 
throne. This was evidently a vindication of the divinity of the Son 
of Mary against the heresies of the Arians, which has been perverted 
by modern Romanists to an exaltation of the Virgin to co-equal 
honours with the Son of God. 

The figure of Mary as the Queen of heaven in the church of St. 
Nicholas at Rome is said by Papebrocius, a Roman authority, to 
have been originally intended for Our Lord, but afterward altered 
to the Madonna, a significant illustration of the substitution of hei 
worship for that of her Divine Son. 

f See the wrathful image of Christ in the Last Judgment of the 
Cam.po Santo and the Sisline Chapel. 
21 



322 The Catacombs of Rome. 

rest," was inaudible amid the conflicts of the times; 
and especially to those bowed down with a sense of sin 
and sorrow, and trembling at the thought of the severe, 
inexorable Judge, the gentle gospel of Mary came with 
a sweet and winning grace that found its way into their 
inmost souls. All images of tenderness and ruth sur- 
rounded her. The blending 

Of mother's love with maiden purity * 

touched the hidden springs of feeling which exist in the 
rudest natures, and made the worship of Mary a religion 
of hope and consolation. She became the new Media- 
trix between the sinful human soul and the Father in 
heaven. Those who shrank from God fled for succour 
to the virgin mother. The pitifulness of her human 
nature was esteemed a stronger ground of confidence 
than that infinite compassion and everlasting love which 
was manifested in the agony and bloody sweat of Geth- 
semane and the cross and passion of Calvary. Hence 
Mary has often been regarded as a sort of tutelar divin- 
ity by the ferocious brigand who stained with blood 
the scapular which he wore as a sacred talisman ; and 
by the daughter of shame who, in strange blending 
profligacy and devotion, cherished her image in the 
very lair of vice. 

But, as there is a soul of goodness in things evil, so 
even the antiscriptural perversions of Mariolatry were 
not without some moral benefit to mankind. In a 
coaise, rude age a new ideal of excellence was devel- 
oped. A morose asceticism was spreading on every 
side, denouncing the sweet and gentle charities of 
hearth and home, and forbidding the love of wife and 

* Wordsworth's Eccles. Sonnets, xxi. 



The Biblical Cycle. 323' 

jhild to those who would attain to the heights of holiness. 
Woman was degraded as a being of inferior nature, re- 
garded as " a necessary evil," and forbidden, as un- 
worthy, to touch with her hand the sacred emblems of 
the passion of Christ. But this cultus of Mary raised 
woman to a loftier plane of being, invested her with a 
moral dignity and power infinitely superior to any thing 
known to pagan times, and called forth a deeper rev- 
erence and more chivalrous regard. 

This example of all womanhood, 
So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good, 
So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure,* 

ennobled and dignified the entire sex, and therefore 
raised and purified the whole of society. The worship 
of sorrow softened savage natures to more human gen- 
tleness, and ameliorated the horrors of long dark cen- 
turies of cruelty and blood. 

We have dwelt thus long on this development of 
Romanism on account of the remarkable prominence 
and enhanced dignity it has received by the bull of 
the Immaculate Conception, issued on the individual 
authority of the present pontiff,f and by the decree of 
his personal infallibility imposed on all Roman Catholic 
Christendom. We have seen how alien it is to the 
entire spirit and teachings, both in art and litera- 
ture, of the primitive church, and have traced its 
growth with the decline of Christianity, like a fungus 
on a dying tree, till it has sapped its very life, and con- 
cealed its early beauty and strength beneath deformity 
and decay. 

* Longfellow's " Golden Legend." 

j Dec., 1854. An inscription in St. Peter's commemorates its pub- 
lication. 



324 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



The other groups of the New Testament cycle are 
chiefly scenes in the life of Our Lord, together with 
representations of some of his principal miracles and 
two or three illustrations of the parables. This series, 
it must be confessed, is of exceedingly meagre charac- 
ter and limited range, being remarkable as much for 
what it omits as for what it contains. Out of the vast 
number of subjects which have been treated in later 
religious art, a comparatively few have been selected, 
which are over and over repeated with unvarying itera- 
tion of type. 

The accompanying 
bas relief, from the 
sarcophagus of Ju- 
nius Bassus, (A. D. 
359,) is probably in- 
tended for Christ 
"sitting in the midst 
of the doctors, both 
hearing them and ask 
ingthem questions."* 
He is here shown 
seated on a curule 
chair, wearing a Ro- 
man toga, and hold- 
ing a half open scroll 
in his hand. His feet 
Fig. 91.-Christ with the Doctors. rest Qn a scarf hdd 

by an allegorical figure, probably a personification of 
the earth — a conception borrowed from Pagan art. 

Frescoes of the baptism of Our Lord occasionally oc- 
cur; f but the scenes of the temptation, the subject of 

♦Luke ii, 46 Such is Pidion's opinion. f See Fig. 132 




The Biblical Cycle 




such grotesque treatment 
in mediaeval art, nowhere 
appear in the Catacombs. 

On a sarcophagus in the 
Lateran Museum is an il- 
lustration of Our Lord's 
first miracle at Cana of 
Galilee, in which he is 
touching the water-pots 
with his rod of power and 
turning the water into wine. 

Christ talking with the ; 

woman of Samaria at the 

well of Sychar is a subject 

that is frequently repeated Fiff - 92 --° hristandtlie Woman 
. c , ,. r _ . , of Samaria, 

in fresco and relief. In the 

accompanying example from a sarcophagus in the Later- 
an, a windlass of primitive construction, like those still 
common in the 
Campagna, is 
shown. 

The healing 
of the paralyt- 
ic has been 
regarded as a 
type of the res- 
toration of the 
soul paralyzed 
by sin. Inge- 
nious Roman- 
ists have dis- 
covered herein 
i symbol of 




Fig. 93— The Healing of the Paralytic. 



326 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



" the Sacrament of Penance," and also of " Baptism 
and the Remission of Sins." In the frescoes of the 
Catacombs the man is represented in the act of obeying 
the command, "Take up thy bed and walk." Some- 
times the bed is a mere reticulated frame-work. It is 
also shown as in the foregoing example from the Cata- 
comb of Callixtus. See Fig. 93. 

Our Lord healing the infirmity of the woman with 
the issue of blood, who drew nigh and touched the 

hem of his gar- 
V ment, is a fre- 
quent subject of 
both sarcophagal 
and mural pre- 
sentation. In the 
accompanying ex- 
ample from a bas 
relief of the fourth 
century the Sav- 
iour is apparently 
uttering the 
words, " Daugh- 
ter, be of good 
comfort, thy faith 
hath made thee 
whole." In the background is seen, in confused 
perspective, a Christian basilica of the period, with 
its semicircular absis and detached baptistery. The 
doors are hung with heavy curtains to exclude 
the noontide heat, as is still common in Italian 
churches.* 




Fig 1 . 94— Christ Healing the Woman 
with the Issue of Blood. 



* Numerous references to these veils occur in the Fathers , /. g., 
Paulin., Natal. Felic, iii, 6 : Aureanunc niveis ornantur limina velis ; 
Hieron., Epitaph. Nepot.: Vela semper in ostiis ; Epiphan., ep ao 



The Biblical Cycle. 



327 




The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and 
fishes is a theme of frequent treatment in early Chris- 
tian painting and 
sculpture, and was 
regarded in the 
writings of the 
Fathers as a 
eucharistic type 
of Him who, as 
the true Bread 
from heaven, gave 
his body to be Fig 1 - 95--The Miracle of the Loaves and 
, , / , ,-r Fishes, 

broken for the life 

of the world. Sometimes, as on a sarcophagus in the 
Lateran, Our Lord stands between two disciples bless- 
ing with either hand the 
food which they hold. 
Occasionally, as in the 
foregoing fresco from the 
cemetery of St. Priscilla, 
the scene is represented by 
a group of disciples kneel- 
ing on the ground as if they 
had just received the food 
so marvellously multiplied. 
At their feet are seen the 
loaves and fishes, and in 
the foreground stand the 
seven baskets full of frag- 
ments that remained. 




Fig-. 



96.— Christ Opening the 
Eyes of the Blind. 



Johan. Hierosol. : Inveni vela pendens in foribus. They were used 
also at the entrance of Pagan schools, " to conceal," says Augustine. 
" the ignorance that took refuge within." 



328 'J lie Catacombs of Rome. 

The miracle of opening the eyes of the blind, which 
was at once a fulfillment of the ancient prophecies con- 
cerning the Messiah and a type of that moral illumi« 
nation which he should impart, appropriately found a 
place on the tombs of those who had been called from 
darkness into God's marvellous 
light. The preceding example 
is from the Catacomb of Cal. 
lixtus. 

Our Lord laying his hand in 
blessing on the head of a little 
child, or probably teaching hu- 
mility and rebuking the ambi- 
tion of his disciples by setting a 
child in their midst, is a fre- 
quently recurring subject in this 
primitive cycle. It was a lesson 
which the early Christians of 
Figure 97. -Our Lord Rome had often to learn : that 
blessing a little Child. . . , . , , 

he that would be greatest among 

them must be the servant of all ; that exaltation of office 
was only pre-eminence of danger and of toil. The 
example above given is from the Catacomb of Callixtus. 
A bas relief in the Kircherian Museum, of the parable 
of the sower and the seed, appropriately symbolized the 
sowing in the furrows of society of the good seed of the 
kingdom, from which should spring a harvest of righteous- 
ness. The frequent representations of fishing scenes may 
refer to the occupation of several of the first disciples of 
Our Lord, or to their spiritual vocation as fishers of 
men. In these, however, Roman Catholic writers have 
fancied an allusion to the sacrament of baptism. We 
have already seen in the ever-recurring figure of the 
Good Shepherd an illustration of the beautiful parable 




The Biblical Cycle. 329 

of the lost sheep, and a most appropriate symbol of the 
Shepheid and Bishop of all souls. In the Catacomb 
of St. Agnes is a fresco of the five wise virgins of the 
parable going forth to meet the bridegroom, and it is so 
designated by Bosio.* Each of the virgins bears in her 
hand the vessel of oil to replenish her lamp ; the fore- 
most holds a torch or candle of wax, anciently much 
used in Roman marriage processions,! as it still is ; while 
the others bear branches of palm in token of festivity. 
A distinguished Roman theologian has, however, with 
perverted ingenuity, discovered in the vessels of oil the 
modern ecclesiastical situlte, or holy-water vases, and in 
the radiant torch of the foremost figure the tufted asper- 
gillum with which the holy water is sprinkled. J 

The story of Lazarus, as we may easily conceive, was 
an especial favourite of the early Christian artists. It 
spoke to the deepest feelings, and inspired the loftiest 
hopes of the primitive believers. Rescued from the 
darkness and despair of paganism as to the future state 
of the soul, they grasped with intensest fervour the glo- 
rious doctrine of its immortal existence and of the 
resurrection of the body. Amid the gloom of the Cat- 
acombs, and surrounded by the silent congregation of 
the dead, they heard with joy the thrilling words, " I 
am the Resurrection and the Life," and laid their loved 
ones to their rest, not with everlasting farewells and 
passionate complainings at the gods, but exulting in the 
hope of a blessed immortality. Therefore they engraved 
on the funeral slab, or painted on the tomb, this record 
of Christ's triumph over death, as a symbol of that 
hope which kept their hearts strong in life's trial hour. 

* Prudentes quinque virgines olei vasa cum lampadibus deferentes. 
— Roma Sotteranea, torn, iii, p. 171. 

f Plutarch, Qucest. Rom. % Rock's Hierzirgia, p. 463. 



330 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




These representations are of every de- 
gree of artistic merit, from the rudely 
scratched and scarcely intelligible out- 
line, to the elaborately sculptured bas 
relief on the costly sarcophagus. Of the 
former the annexed is perhaps the sim- 
plest example to be found. It is of 
date A. D. 400. 

Lazarus is generally exhibited as a 

Fig. 98— Laz- mummy-like figure, " bound hand and 
arus. . . . 

• foot with grave-clothes," standing in a 

temple-shaped tomb or (zdicula, like those which 
line the Appian Way. This figure Our Lord, the 

Prince of Life, is 
touching with the 
rod of his power, 
as shown in the ac- 
companying fresco 
from the Catacomb 
of Sts. Peter and 
Marcellinus. 

The figure of 
Mary, frequently 
of very diminutive 
size, setting all pro- 
portion at defiance^ 
Fig. 99.-The Raising of Lazarus. ig often depicted as 

crouching at the feet of Jesus, and sometimes as 
kissing his hand in gratitude for restoring her brother 
to life. Sometimes, also, Martha is seen standing by 
the tomb, and the disciples standing around Jesus. 
The following engraving, from a sarcophagus in the 
Lateran, is a characteristic example of the ordinary type. 
A much less frequent subject of art-presentation 




The Biblical Cycle. 



33» 



was Mary Magdalene holding in her hands the " ala- 
baster box of very precious 
ointment," wherewith she 
anointed Our Lord. 

Christ's triumphant entry W 
into Jerusalem, the presage 
and symbol of his final vic- 
tory in the world and en- 
trance as the King of Glory 
into the New Jerusalem on 
high, occurs with great fre- 
quency and considerable va- 
riety of treatment. Although 
dissociated from this scene 
in the gospel narrative, Zac- 
chseus is almost invariably Fi &- lOO.-Raising? of Lazarus.* 
connected therewith in this primitive art, and generally 





Fig. 101.— Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. 
* On an ivory diptych in the Educational Museum at Toronto, 
Ca., the raising of Lazarus appears exactly after this primitive type. 



332 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



appears mounted in a tree gazing at the procession. 
At times the scene is reduced to its simplest elements ; 
at others, as in Fig. toi, from a sarcophagus in the Lat- 
eran, it is more elaborately treated, exhibiting the mul- 
titudes spreading their garments, and strewing branches 
of palm before the meek conqueror. 

Peter's denial of his Master is a theme that is fre- 
quently repeated. The cock, whose crowing awoke the 
disciple's late remorse, without which it would some- 
times be impossible to discriminate the scene, is gener- 
ally shown, as in the following sarcophagal example 
from the Lateran Museum. 

As we have already re- 
marked, the tragic scenes 
of the passion of Our 
Lord find no place in this 
primitive cycle. These 
were felt to be subjects for 
devout meditation rather 
than for pictorial treat- 
ment. The early Chris- 
tians preferred to contem- 
plate Christ rather as the 
.victor over death and hell, 
than as the victim of suffer- 
" The ago- 
ny, tne crown of thorns, 




Fig. 102.— Peter's Denial of [ ns an ^ shame 
Christ. & 

the crown of 



the nails, the spear," says a distinguished critic of this 
primitive art,* " seem all forgotten in the fullness of joy 
brought by his resurrection. This is the theme, Christ's 
resurrection, and that of the church in his person, on 
which, in their peculiar language, the artists of the 
Catacombs seem never weary of expatiating; death swal- 
* Lord Lindsay, Christian Art, vol. i, p. 51. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



333 



lowed up in victory, and the victor crowned with the 
amaranth wreath of immortality, is a vision ever before 
their eyes, with a vividness of anticipation which we, 
who have been born to this belief, can but feebly 
realize." 

The only scenes connected with the passion, besides 
that of the denial, already given, are those which oc- 
curred in the judgment-hall of Pilate, and a unique 
example of Simon bearing the cross. One scene in 
particular seems to have been selected rather as a testi- 
mony of Christ's innocence than of his sufferings. It is 
that in which Pilate declares, " I have found no fault 
in this man ; " and calling for water washes his hands, 
as if to blot out the damning guilt of that judicial 
murder. In the accompanying engraving, from a muti- 




Fig. 103— Pilate on the Judgment Seat Washing his Handa 



lated bas-relief in the Lateran Museum, this scene is 
exhibited. In the original the face of the irresolute 



334 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



governor seems to express compunction at this perver- 
sion of justice to which he is yielding. In the back- 
ground is seen the profile of his wife, as though utter- 
ing her solemn admonition against the impending crime. 
The servant with the ewer and empty basin appears in 
conformity with the oriental ablutionary custom of pour- 
ing water upon the hands. 

In the last compartment to the right of the remark- 
able sarcophagus in the Lateran, represented in Fig. 104, 
this scene is repeated. Associated therewith in the 
next adjoining compartment are 
two figures interpreted as Christ, 
guarded by a Roman soldier, 
witnessing a good confession be- 
fore Pontius Pilate. The crown 
above the head of the latter, if 
not a mere architectural decora- 
tion, may indicate the reward 
of those who confess Christ be- 
fore men. 

This sarcophagus exhibits, as 
Dr. Northcote admits, " the 
nearest resemblance to the later 
representations of Our Saviour's 
Passion to be found in early 
Christian art."* The Constan- 
tinian monogram in the central 
compartment has been already 
described.! To the left is seen 
the figure of Christ crowned, 
not with thorns, but, as if sym- 
bolizing his crown of rejoicing 
on high, with 'a garland of .flowers. The last compart- 
* Rom. Sott., p. 307. f See Book II, chap, ii, p. 269. 




The Biblical Cycle. 335 

ment exhibits Our Lord, or, more probably, Simon 
the Cyrenian, bearing the cross under the guard of a 
Roman soldier. " But there are none of the traces 
of suffering," says Dr. Northcote, "with which later 
artists have familiarized our imagination, and the crown 
above points to the reward for bearing the cross after 
our suffering Master."* In one instance the Roman 
soldiers are shown smiting Our Lord on the head 
with a reed ; f but no nearer approach to the con- 
summation of the supreme sacrifice of Calvary is ever 
attempted. 

Neither are the august themes of Christ's resurrec- 
tion and ascension historically treated in this biblical 
cycle, but only under the Old Testament types of Jonah 
and Elijah. One group, hypothetically interpreted as the 
Noli me tange?-e, or Our Lord saying to Mary on the 
morning of the resurrection, " Touch me not, for I am 
not yet ascended to my Father, " more probably rep- 
resents the gratitude of Mary for the resurrection of 
her brother Lazarus. Numerous frescoes of seven men 
eating a repast of bread and fish may refer to Our Lord's 
appearing to his disciples on the sea-shore, or to the 
celebration of the Agape. 

We find only one event subsequent to the ascension 
occasionally represented en the early Christian sarcoph- 
agi, namely, the apprehension of Peter,J which was 
probably regarded as a type of his being finally bound 
for his crucifixion. He is to be discriminated from Our 
Lord arrested by the Roman soldiers by his bearded 

* Rom. Soft, p. 308. 

\ According to Romish tradition, the Divine Sufferer received five 
thousand stripes during his scourging. This, as they would be in- 
flicted by Roman soldiers, would be beyond human endurance, and 
«{as far beyond what Jewish or Roman law would allow. 

X Acts iv, 3. 



336 The Catacombs of Rome. 

face, and by the Jewish caps, which mark the satellites of 
Herod Agrippa. It is remarkable that so little reference 
is made to St. Peter in this early Christian sculpture, and 
that little indicating no degree of superiority over the 
other apostles ; and the fact is inexplicable on the Roman 
theory of his primacy in the so-called Apostolic College. 
In the still earlier frescoes of the Catacombs he is no- 
where especially designated by name or attribute. The 
only apostle distinguished from the rest of the twelve 
is St. Paul, who, in a fresco in the Catacomb of St. 
Priscilla, is seen side by side with the Good Shep- 
herd, and indicated by the inscription — pavlvs pas- 
tor apostolvs.* Indeed, this was the especial title of 
St. Paul as being " in labors more abundant " than any 
of the apostles.f Even on the sarcophagi St. Peter 
is only once or twice exhibited as bearing the symbol- 
ical rod of power, and these examples may be of the 
fifth or sixth century. In certain of the gilt glasses 
already mentioned he is allegorically portrayed, in- 
stead of Moses, as smiting the rock, implying the opinion 
that he was in some sense the representative of the lat- 
ter in the New Testament economy. But these glasses 
are of comparatively late date, when the notion of the 
primacy of St. Peter was already partially developed ; 
and even in these St. Peter and St. Paul are often found 
side by side, without any sign of the superiority of the 
former. 

It is easy to discriminate in early Christian art bc- 

* Aringhi, Roma Sotterranea, torn, ii, p. 273. 

\ Hence Augustine asserts that if the name of the apostle is not 
expressly mentioned, St. Paul is always understood by this title — 
Apostolus cum dicetur, si non exprimatur quis apostolus non intel- 
ligitur nisi Paulus. — Contra duas Epis. Pelag., lib. iii, c. 3. The 
apostles were sometimes represented by twelve men, but without 
•my individual distinction. 



The Biblical Cycle. 337 

tween the two apostles so highly honoured at Rome * 
by the strongly marked conventional types to which 
their portraits almost invariably conform. St. Paul is 
characterized by the nobler form of face, a high, bold 
forehead, aquiline Jewish nose, dark hair and eyes, a 
flowing and pointed beard, and a refined and thought- 
ful expression of countenance as became one brought 
up at the feet of Gamaliel and instructed in all the 
wisdom of Greek philosopher and Hebrew sage. The 
Galilaean fisherman is represented with strongly-knit 
frame, broad rustic features, short gray hair, a thick 
and closely curling beard, generally of silvery white, 
and an expression of much force and energy of charac- 
ter.! It is probable that these types were derived from 
authentic tradition if not from actual portraits. J 
Eusebius, Augustine, and others of the Fathers, claim 

* O Roma felix, quae duorum Principum 
Es consecrata glorioso sanguine ; 
Horum cruore purpurata ceteras 
Excellis orbis una pulcritudines. | 

— Office for the Festival of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

St. Paul is designated the illustrious doctor, the vase of election, the 
teacher of the nations, and preacher of truth throughout the world. — 
Egregie doctor Paule, vas electionis, doctor gentium, praedicator veri- 
tatis in universo mundo. — IHd. 

\ Of these types are the portraits on a bronze medal found in the 
Catacomb of St. Domitilla, in the so-called tomb of Sts. Peter and 
Paul at St. Sebastian's, and in the early sculptures, mosaics, and paint- 
ings generally. 

\ The scoffing Lucian, who may have conversed with some who wit- 
nessed the execution of St. Paul, describes him as " the bald-headed 
and long-nosed Galilaean, who mounted through the air into the third 
heaven " — Takikaioq, dvactxilavriag, eiripfitvog, ec rp'nov ovpavov aepo- 
PaTT/aac;. — Philopatris. Nicephorus and the Acts of Paul and Thecla 
describe him as bald — \pMg tt/v ne<>>a?iTJv. The apocryphal Acts and 
Malalas add the epithets ylvuvg and x ii P lTn S k^VPVS, sweet, and full 
of grace. 

22 



338 The Catacombs of Rome. 

to have see 1 representations of these apostles preserved 
in painting and the reputed portraits alleged to have 
been sent by Pope Sylvester to the Emperor Constan- 
tine are annuaHy exhibited at St. Peter's for the venera- 
tion of the faitAful.* 

Nowhere in the Catacombs do we find the least sup- 
port for the notion that St. Peter is in any sense the 
founder of the church in Rome, much less the rock on 
which the church universal is built. That honour is as- 
signed in early Christian art, as it is by the apostle him- 
self, to Jesus Christ, the " chief corner-stone, elect, 
precious."! 

* The cultus of Peter, the result of the growing conception of his 
primacy, was developed to a degree second only to that of Mary. 
Its extent and character in the ninth century are indicated by 
a mosaic in the triclinium of San Giovanni di Laterano at Rome, 
in which the apostle, seated on a lofty throne, with the keys 
of heaven and hell lying in his lap, is bestowing the pallium, or ' 
symbol of ecclesiastical power, on the most holy lord, Pope Leo — so 
he is designated — and the standard of battle on the Emperor Charle- 
magne, both of whom are kneeling at his feet. Beneath is the fol- 
lowing prayer, addressed to Peter as to God : beate petre dona 
vita leoni ppe bictoria CARLO regi DONA, " Blessed Peter, give 
life to Pope Leo, and victory to King Charles." 

This religious cultus culminated in the erection of that noblest 
of all earthly temples, raised to the honour of a lowly fisherman, and in 
the idolatrous homage paid to the great bronze statue cast from that 
of Jupiter Capitolinus, if it be not indeed the identical statue of the 
heathen deity transformed into that of the Christian apostle and 
Romish saint. 

f We may here notice the precious Romish relic known as St. Peter's 
chair. In June, 1867, the present pontiff ordered the bronze covering 
with which this object of vencmtion had been concealed for two hun- 
dred years to be removed, and the chair was found to be a solid 
oaken structure with iron rings, by which it could be carried like the 
Telia gcstatoria, in which the popes are borne in religious processions, 
and covered in part with ivory plates on which are engraved the 
labours of Hercules and other scenes. Th:s chair, which is commem- 
orated in one of the festivals of the church. Romish tradition asserts 



The Biblical Cycle. 



339 




Fig. 105.— Painted Chamber in the Catacomb of St. Agnes.* 

These biblical pictures, we may here remark, are not 
grouped indiscriminately, but are often arranged in a 
regular order having reference to their doctrinal signifi- 
cation. The walls and ceilings of the cubicula are fre- 
quently divided into compartments of geometrical design, 

to be that in which St. Peter sat while exercising episcopal authority 
at Rome, and in which it is presumed he was borne in state, like 
those haughty pontiffs who claimed to be his successors. It is supposed 
to have been preserved during the ages of persecution in the crypts 
of the Catacombs ; indeed, tradition identifies the Catacomb of 
Ostrianus on the Appian Way as the scene where this relic was ven- 
erated in the early centuries. Those who regard the fact of Peter's 
presence in Rome as exceedingly hypothetical, and who altogether re- 
ject the notion of his episcopal authority, will regard any jefutation 
of this legend as superfluous. 

An inscription is shown said to have been engraved by St. Peter 
himself, also the font at which he baptized ! (See Fig. 131.) 

* It will be observed that in this chamber the Good Shepherd 



34-0 The Catacombs of Rome. 

as shown in the preceding engraving of a chamber in the 
Catacomb of St. Agnes. See also Figs. 82 and 89. 

Sometimes the paintings of a chamber are as closely 
related as the parts of a chapter in systei latic theology. 
Thus on account of their common reference, as he con- 
ceives, to the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist, 
De Rossi designates as liturgical paintings certain pic- 
tures in the Catacomb of Callixtus.* An allegorizing 
spirit, however, will often discover a meaning in a fresco 
or relief altogether unthought of by the original artist. 
Thus Dr. Northcote interprets as personifications of the 
church or of the Virgin Mary, certain praying figures 
nowise differing from the ordinary oranti. 

The sarcophagi are almost exclusively occupied with 
scenes from the biblical cycle, generally arranged in 
two rows in a continuous series, like the figures on the 
frieze of a Grecian temple. Frequently ten or twelve 
groups, embracing nearly forty figures, are found on the 
side of a sarcophagus. Sometimes the separate groups 
occupy a rhythmical arrangement of panel-like com- 
partments, divided by columns of more or less orna- 
mental character. (See"Figs. 102, 103, and 104.) The 
busts of the deceased persons, man. and wife, are often 
exhibited in bold relief in a concave recess in the centre, 
like the half of a bivalve shell. The table in the foot- 
note on the following page exhibits the relative frequency 
of occurrence of the different subjects already described, 
as observed in fifty-five sarcophagi in the Lateran 
occupies the position of prominence and dignity in the compartment 
orer the arcosolium, balanced by Daniel in the lie is* den and the 
three Hebrews in the furnace. On the left hand is a shelf for 
lamps, magnified in Romish imagination into a credence table for 
supporting the elements of the eucharist. In the ceiling are oranti 
and lambs. 

* Rom. Sott., p. 26S. 



The Biblical Cycle. 341 

Museum by Mr. Burgon, and as shown in forty-eight 
examples copied by Bosio.* 

The massiveness of the sarcophagi would during the 
ages of persecution prevent their use even for the wealthy, 
as their preparation and conveyance from the city would 
involve an amount of publicity that would imperil the 
safety of the living. After the time of Constantine the 
increased riches and perfect immunity of the Chris- 
tians permitted the adoption of this costly entombment. 
The sarcophagi were no longer hidden in the subter- 
ranean crypts, but were exposed to view in the vestibules 
of the stately basilicas erected above ground. \ 

Hence, Chrysostom speaks of Constantine being 
buried in the fisherman's porch,J and of emperors oc- 
cupying the place of porters at the graves of the 
apostles. Numerous sarcophagi, howeVer, have been 



* Burgon. Bosio. 

History of Jonas. 23 11 i Fall of Adam and Eve 14 10 

The Smitten Kock 21 16 | Woman with Issue of Blood. 



Christ's Entry into Jerusalem 6 8 

The Good Shepherd 6 9 

Noah in the Ark 5 6 

Christ before Pilate 5 6 

Giving of the Law 4 6 

The Three Hebrew Children.. 4 3 

Moses Taking Off his Shoes . . 2 2 

Elias Taken Up to Heaven.. . 2 3 

Nativity, with Ox and Ass 1 4 

Christ Crowned with Thorns . 1 1 



Apprehension of Peter 20 14 

Miracle of the Loaves 20 14 

Giving Sight to the Blind .... 19 11 

Change of Water into Wine . . 16 8 

liaising of Lazarus 16 14 

Peter's Denial 14 8 

Daniel in the Lions' Den 14 7 

Paralytic Healed 12 7 

Creation of Eve 11 2 

Sacrifice of Isaac 11 9 

Adoration of the Magi 11 8 

It will be seen that there is only one example of Christ crowned 
with thorns, and in that the harshness is removed by the substitution 
of a garland of flowers. How different from modern Roman Catho- 
lic art, in which the scenes of the passion are endlessly repeated ! 
In pagan sarcophagi we find, instead of these sacred themes, crowded 
battle-pieces, with processions of warriors, chariots, horses, maskers, 
mythological groups, vintage scenes, etc. See the sarcophagi of the 
Empress Helena and of Constantia in the Vatican Museum, and 
before described.- 

\ In ecclesia nullatenus sepeliantur, sed in atrio, aut porticu, aut in 
exedris ecclesise. — Council of Nantes, can. 6. 

JChrys., Horn. 26, in 2 Cor. 



34 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

found in the Catacombs, some even reputed to be of 
the first century. These were generally of simpler de- 
sign, and adorned only with the series of doubly curving 
lines known as wave ornaments. They were frequently 
buried in the floor of the cubicula* 

The reader, in examining the foregoing representa- 
tions of the person of Our Lord,f must have been struck 
with their remarkably youthful and joyous character in 
this primitive cycle, as contrasted with the older aspect 
and more severe expression of the prevalent types of 
later art. This difference is indicative of a correspond- 
ing change of religious feeling, from the genial cheer- 
fulness of the early centuries to the gloomy asceticism 
of the Middle Ages. In the art of the Catacombs Our 
Lord is represented, for the most part, in an ideal man- 
ner, and not in an historical sense ; or, to use the lan- 
guage of Lord Lindsay, " as an abstraction, as the 
genius, so to speak, of Christianity." J He is almost 
invariably exhibited as a youthful, beardless figure, to 
signify — say the ancient writers — " the everlasting prime 
of eternity ; " with, where any definite expression is at- 
tempted, a countenance of sweet and tender grace, full 
of mildness and benignity. 

That there was in these primitive types no attempt at 
realistic portraiture is evident from the opinion of many 

* Numerous Christian sarcophagi have also been found at Aries, 
Saragossa, Ravenna, Milan, and elsewhere. 

The name sarcophagus, flesh-eating, from odpZ and tydyu, it is well 
known, was derived from the supposed quality of the Lapis Assius, 
a stone of Assos in Asia Minor of which they were originally 
made, of corroding and consuming dead bodies, as ascribed to it by 
Theophrastus and Pliny. 

•f-See especially Figs. 47, 48, 63, 91, 92, 96, 97, and postea 
106. 

\ Christian Art, vol. i, p. 42. 



The Biblical Cycle. 343 

of the early Fathers as to the personal appearance of 
Our Lord. This opinion was founded upon an erro- 
neous interpretation of certain passages of Scripture, 
expressive of Christ's voluntary humiliation and abase- 
ment. Thus Justin Martyr speaks of his appearance 
as ignoble and uncomely.* Tertullian, with his usual 
vehemence, asserts Christ to have been devoid, not 
only of divine majesty, but even of human beauty, f to 
have lacked grace and dignity beyond all men. J " But 
however mean his aspect, however vulgar and dishon- 
oured," he exclaims, " he shall be still my Christ whom 1 
adore." § Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Basil agree 
in this opinion as to the outward appearance of Our 
Lord ; and Cyril of Alexandria audaciously declares that 
he was the most ugly of the sons of men.|| 

But a juster interpretation of Scripture, and a more 
worthy conception of the person of Christ, at length 
prevailed. The glowing imagery of the Song of Songs 
and of the prophetic Psalms was applied by several of 
the Fathers of the fourth century to the person, as well as 
to the character, of Our Lord. Jerome conjectures that 
there must have been something celestial in his counte- 
nance and look, or the apostles would not immediately 
have followed him ;** and that the effulgence and majesty 

*Tbv ae.i6f) nal uti/iov (pavevra. — Dial, cum Tryph., 85. 

f Adeo nee humanze honestatis corpus fuit, nedum ccelestis clar- 
itatis. — Dt Cam. Christi., c. 9. 

\ Sed species ejus inhonorata, deficiens ultra omnes homines.— 
Contra Marc, iii, 17. 

§ Si inglorius, si ignobilis, si inhonorabilis ; meus erit Christus.— 
Ibid. 

|| "AM,a to eltiog avrov urifiov ekKlkov irapu nuvrag rovg vlovc; t<2v 
avdpufruv. — De Nudatione Noe., lib. ii, vol. i, p. 13. 

**Nisi enim habuisset et in vultu quiddam et in oculis sidereum, 
ounquam eum statim secuti fuissent apostoli. — Epis. ad Princip. 
Virginem. 



344 Tlie Catacombs of Rome. 

of the divinity within, which shone forth even in the 
human countenance, could not but attract at first sight all 
beholders. * Chrysostom and Gregory of Nyssa in the 
East adopted this nobler conception, as also did Am- 
brose and Augustine in the West. The latter exclaims, 
" He was beautiful on his mother's bosom, beautiful in 
the arms of his parents, beautiful upon the cross, and 
beautiful in the sepulchre ; " although he admits that 
the countenance of Christ was entirely unknown, and 
was painted with innumerable diversities of expression, f 
There was therefore, as M. Rochette remarks, J and 
as Dr. Northcote admits, § no authentic portrait of 
Christ recognized by the early church ; nor was any 
strictly uniform type adopted. Eusebius, indeed, men- 
tions reputed portraits of Our Lord associated with those 
of St. Peter and St. Paul ; || but they were apparently 
objects of mere local superstition, as was also the 
alleged statue of Christ at Caesarea Philippi, in which 
he was supposed to be represented as healing the 
woman with the issue of blood.* * The earliest acknowl- 



* Certe fulgor ipsa et majestas divinitatis occulta?, qua? etiam in 
humana", facie relucebat, ex primo ad se venientes trahere poterat as- 
pectu. — Hieronym. in Matth., ix, 9. 

•f-Qua fuerit ille facie nospenitus ignoramus : nam et ipsius Domin- 
ican facies carnis innumerabilium cogitationum diversitate variatur 
et fingitur, quae tamen una erat, quaecunque erat. — De Trin., lib. 
vii, c. 4, 5. 

X Tableau des Catacombes, p. 164. %J?om. Soft., p. 252. 

\Hist. Eccl., vii, 18. From this frequent association St. Paul as 
well as St. Peter was frequently regarded as being both among the 
original disciples. "Justly do they deserve to err," says Augustine, 
speaking of this mistake, " who seek Christ and his apostles, not in the 
holy volumes, but on painted walls." — De Consens, Evang., lib. i, ex. 

* * This statue, it has been suggested, probably represented the phi- 
losopher Apollonius or the Emperor Vespasian, and the suppliant 
female figure a personified city or province. Gibbon thinks it im- 



The Biblical Cycle. 345 

edged images of Christ were attributed to the Gnostic 
heretics, and were honoured with those of Homer, Py- 
thagoras, Orpheus, and other heroes and sages by the 
eclectic philosophers of Rome.* 

The silence of early tradition, as well as of Scripture, 
concerning the outward form of the Saviour of man- 
kind, seems providentially designed to turn the mind 
from a sensuous regard for his person to a spiritual ap- 
prehension of his saving grace. The spurious epistle 
of Publius Lentulus, an imaginary contemporary of 
Christ, which is of uncertain and probably late date, 
contains the first written portraiture of Our Lord, which 
already indicates a departure from the generally youth- 
ful type of the Catacombs. " His countenance," says 
this account, " is severe and expressive, so as to inspire 
beholders at once with love and fear. ... In reproving 
or censuring, he is awe-inspiring ; in exhorting and 
teaching, his speech is gentle and caressing. His ex- 
pression is of wonderful sweetness and gravity. No 
one ever saw him laugh, though he has been often seen 
to weep." f 

possible that it could be intended for the poor woman mentioned in 
the gospel. Eusebius mentions the belief as a mere popular tradi- 
tion. " They say that this statue bears the likeness of Jesus" — 
Tovtov 6e tov avdpidvTa emova tov'Itjoov (j>epeiv eXeyov. — Hist. Eccl., 
viii, 18. 

*lxen.., adv. Hares., i, 25. Aug., De Hcerisib., c. viii. The Emperor 
Alex. Severus, we have seen, had one of these images of Christ in his 
Lararium, with those of Abraham and Orpheus. — ^El. Lamprid. in 
Vit.Alex. Sev., c. 29. 

f Conspectus vultus ejus cum severitate et plenus efficacia, ut specta- 
tors amare eum possint et rursus timere. ... In reprehendendo et 
objurgando formidabilis , in docendo et exhortando bland£e linguze et 
amabilis. Gratia miranda vultus cum gravitate. Vel semel eum 
ridentem nemo vidit sed flentem imo. — Fabricius, Codex. Apoc. 
Nov. Teste., ie., pars. 301. 



346 The Catacombs of Rome. 

The oldest extant picture of the head of Christ 
treated separately is a profile brought from the Catacomb 
of Callixtus, now in the Christian Museum of the Vatican, 
and figured in the engraving on the following page. It 
is in imitation of mosaic, about life-size, and of a dif- 

Pere Mabillon tells us that one of Christ's tears has been preserved 
and peculiarly honoured at Vendome. 

John Damascenus, in the eighth centuiy, records the legend of a 
miraculous contemporary portrait of Christ which healed Agbarus, 
King of Edessa, of a mortal disease. It was till recently honoured 
in the church of St. Silvester at Rome. 

The miraculous image known as the Veronica is claimed to be 
the actual impression of the Saviour's features made on the veil or 
handkerchief of a devout Jewess, who piously wiped his brow as he 
toiled along the way to Calvary. This image she brought to Rome 
where it cured Tiberius Caesar of the leprosy, and was afterwards 
presented to the Emperor Charlemagne. It is now publicly 
worshipped in St. Peter's with the utmost devotion and splendor. 
The name is probably derived from the label vera icon or icona — a 
true image — commonly attached to pictures of Our Lord. It was 
also given to the pious Jewess, who is identified as the niece of 
Herod. A colossal statue of St. Veronica adonis St. Peter's fane, 
and the event is celebrated in sacred art and pious verse. The fol- 
lowing, from a MS. in St. George's Library, Windsor, is a favourable 
specimen of the latter : 

Salve, Sancta facies 

Mei Redemptoris, 

In qua nitet species 

Divini splendoris. 

Impressa panniculo 

Nivei candoris, 

Dataque Veronicas, 

Signum ob Amoris. 

Of equally apocryphal character are the Volto Santo, exhibited 
during Holy Week at St. Peter's, and the portraits attributed to 
Nicodemus, Pilate, St. Luke, or to celestial artists. One of the 
Acheiropoietes, or pictures made without hands, almost blackened 
with age, and of the Byzantine type, is thrice a year exhibited at the 
Lateran palace at Rome. 



The Biblical Cycle. 



347 



ferent type from the figure of Our Lord in composition 
in the frescoes and sculptures of the Catacombs. He 
is portrayed as of adult age, his calm, smooth brow 
shaded by long brown hair which is parted in the middle 
and falls in masses on the shoulders. The eyes are 
large and thoughtful, the nose long and narrow, the 
beard soft and flowing, and the general expression of 
countenance serene and mild. This became the 
hieratic type of many of the noblest pictures of later 
Italian art, and, according to the Abbe Brivati, inspired 
the genius of Da Vinci, Raphael, and Caracci. 

In the Catacomb of 
Sts. Nereus and Achil- 
les the head and bust 
of Christ form a me- 
dallion in the centre 
of a vaulted ceiling. 
The face is of a noble 
and dignified expres- 
sion, mingled with be- 
nevolence; but it is 
older in aspect, and 
probably of consider- 
ably later date, than 
that here given. 
K u g 1 e r , however, Fig. 106.-Tlie Oldest Extant Picture 
claims for it priority of ° ur Lord - 

of origin. Both of these were probably of the latter 
part of the fourth century, and were executed not by 
the Christians of the purest ages of the church, but by 
those who had begun to walk by sight and not by faith. 
The primitive Christians, we have seen, had no pro- 
fessed portraits of Christ, but only allegorical represen- 
tations of the Good Shepherd, or a youthful figure re- 




348 The Catacombs of Rome. 

garded as the abstractions or genius of Christianity. 
"We must not," says a Father of the second century, 
" cling to the sensuous, but rise to the spiritual. The 
familiarity of daily sight lowers the dignity of the divine, 
and to pretend to worship a spiritual essence through 
earthly matter is to degrade that essence to the world 
of sense." * 

On a terra cotta medallion, found not in the Cata- 
combs themselves, but in the rubbish near the mouth 
of the cemetery of St. Agnes, is a head of Our Lord 
of the same general type as Fig. 106, but of much 
superior execution. The face is of exquisite beauty, 
and is characterized by a sweet and tender grace of 
expression. But with the decline of art and the cor- 
ruption of Christianity this beautiful type disappeared, 
and a more austere and solemn aspect was given to 
pictures of Christ. Although the technical means 
of execution were diminished, and the rendering of 
form became more and more incorrect, yet for pow- 
erful effect, strength of character, and depth of feeling, 
Christian art exhibited resources beyond any thing to 
be found in the Catacombs. It burst the narrow 
limits in which it was there confined, and found ample 
scope in the frescoes and mosaics of the stately basilicas 
which were everywhere rising. In those vast and 
shadowy interiors the principal figure was that of Christ, 
surrounded by saints and angels, looking down upon 
the worshippers with awe-inspiring power, holding in 
his left hand the book of life, and raising his right in 
solemn menace or warning. 

The first example of the art-presentation of Christ 
under this stern and sullen aspect, according to that 

* Clem. Alex., Strom., v. 



The Biblical Cycle. 349 

accomplished critic, Mr. Hemans, is a large mosaic com- 
position of the fifth century in the Ostian basilica of 
St. Paul. The colossal figure of the Saviour dominates 
over every other object, with an effect at once startling 
and repulsive. " Nor can we help," says Mr. Hemans, 
" seeing in this strangely unworthy conception the evi- 
dence of deterioration in the religious ideal, even more 
than of decline in the technical treatment peculiar to 
the age."* Of this character is the head of Our Lord 
in the crypt of St. Cecilia. The expression is grave, 
the eyes large and solemn ; the book of the gospels is in 
his hand, and his head is surrounded by a nimbus in the 
form of a Greek cross. 

This type became more and more rigid and austere 
as the gathering shadows of the Dark Ages mantled on 
the minds of men. The gloomy asceticism of the mo- 
nastic orders also left its impress on the art of the 
period, especially in the East, where the Basilian monks 
too faithfully illustrated the stern, austere judgments of 
their founder concerning the person of Christ. The 
rudeness of execution of this Byzantine school was only 

* Sacred Art in Italy, p. 212. The Mosaics of this century in the 
adoration of the Magi at S. Maria Maggiore, before mentioned, is 
the earliest example of the appearance in art of the figures of angels, 
those sublime creations that glorify the canvas of the artists of the 
Rena ; ssance. The winged genii in the Catacombs are rather an imi- 
tation of classic types than of a Christian significance. 

The symbols of the four evangelists — the angel, lion, ox, and 
eagle — are unknown in the Catacombs, and first appear in the fourth 
century. Sometimes these symbols have reference to the four historic 
aspects of redemption through Christ — the Incarnation, Passion, Res- 
urrection, and Ascension, as explained in the following monkish 
Thyme : 

Quatuor haec Dominum signant animalia Christum : 
Est homo nascendo, Vitulusque sacer moriendo, 
Et Leo surgondo, coelos Aquilaque petendo. 



350 The Catacombs of Rome. 

equalled by the meanness of conception of the harsh, 
stiff and blackened portraits of Our Lord, in which he 
was exhibited as emphatically " a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief." 

Toward the close of the tenth century art sank into 
its deepest degradation as the long night of the Dark 
Age? reached its densest gloom. The year one thou- 
sand was regarded in popular apprehension as the date 
of the end of time, and of the final conflagration of the 
world so intensely realized in the sublime hymn, 

Dies ine, dies ilia, 
Solvet saeclum in favilla. 

The excited imagination of mankind, brooding upon the 
approaching terrors of the Last Day, found expression 
in the sombre character of the art of the period. The 
tender grace of the Good Shepherd of the Catacombs 
gave place to the stern inexorable Judge, blasting the 
wicked with a glance and treading down the nations in 
his fury. Christ was no longer the Divine Orpheus, 
charming with the music of his lyre the souls of men, 
and breathing peace and benediction from his lips, but 
the " Rex tremendae majestatis," a dread Avenger 
striking the imagination with awe, and awakening alarm 
and remorse in the soul. All the stern denunci- 
ations of the Hebrew prophets and the weird imagery 
of the Apocalypse found intensely realistic treatment in 
art. Christ smites the earth with a curse, and consumes 
the wicked like stubble. " A fire goeth before him, and 
burnetii up his enemies round about." * The great white 
throne is set, and from beneath it a flame bursts forth 
devouring the guilty objects of his wrath. Like an 

* Psa. xcvii, 3. 



The Biblical Cycle. 351 

angry Jove,* he hurls the thunderbolts of his fury and 
blasts with the lightning of his power. The angels 
tremble in terror at his frown, and even the intercession 
of the Virgin Mother avails not to mitigate the dread 
displeasure of her Divine Son. Down to the period 
of the Renaissance the tragic scenes of the last judg- 
mei t continue to be favourite subjects of art treatment, 
and exhibit some of its most remarkable achievements ; 
but not all the genius of Orcagna or of Michael Angelo 
can reconcile our minds to the savage sternness and 
ferocity of the frescoes of the Campo Santo and the 
Sistine Chapel. 

Christ is also frequently depicted in Mediaeval art 
with his staff and scrip, his " scallop hat and shoon," 
setting out upon his weary, mortal pilgrimage ; re- 
turning to heaven as a toil-worn man leaning heavily 
upon his staff, f or showing to the Father sitting on 
his throne his wounded hands and side. He is also 
seen, as in the sublime vision of St. John, riding in 

* In the austere drama of Dante Christ receives the title of 
Sovereign Jove : 

O summo Giove, 
Che fosti 'n terra per noi crocifisso. — Purgat., canto vi. 

In Mediaeval art Christ is frequently modeled after the pagan yupiter 
Tonans. 

\ In some quaint French verses accompanying one of these pictures 
Our Lord, in giving an account of his journey, in characteristic ac- 
cord with the erroneous theology of the times, is made to intimate 
thftt he would fain have avoided the unwelcome task : 

" Pere," dist Jhesus, " retourne 
Suis a toy, et ai consumme 
Ce que faire me commandas 
Quant jus ou monde m'envoyas, 
Dont Men je m 'en feusse passe." 

— Roniaut des Trois Pclerinages, A. D. 1358. 



352 The Catacombs of Rome. 

majesty on his white horse, accompanied by the armies 
of the sky ; as trampling beneath his feet the lion and 
dragon, and as chaining death and hell. In Greek art, 
especially, he is exhibited as a throned archbishop, ar- 
rayed in gorgeous vestments, receiving the homage 
of saints and angels, or offering the sacrifice of the 
mass as the great High Priest entered into the holiest 
of all. 

One of the most striking contrasts between the art 
of the Catacombs and that of later tinies is the entire 
absence in the former of those gross anthropomorphic 
images of the persons of the Holy Trinity, either to- 
gether or separately — except Our Lord under his prop- 
er human form — of which the latter, in striking offence 
against piety and good taste, exhibits so many painful 
examples. In the earlier ages a solemn reverence for- 
bade the attempt to depict the Eternal Father or the 
Holy Spirit except by means of symbolical types. The 
universal testimony of Christian antiquity is opposed to 
this practice so common in Mediaeval art. Origen, Am- 
brose, and Augustine unite in prohibiting the represen- 
tation of the Deity by any material object. The latter 
declares it to be impious for any Christian to set up such 
an image in the church, and much more to do it in his 
heart,* or to conceive it possible that the Divine Being 
may be circumscribed by the limits of the human frame. f 
Paulinus of Nola, in his account of the symbolism of 
the Holy Trinity in the church of St. Felix, describes 
Christ as represented by a lamb, the Holy Spirit by a 

*Tale simulacrum nefas est Christiano in templo collocare, 
multo magis is corde nefarium est. — De Fide et Symbolo, c. 7. 

\ Nefas habent docti ejus (ecclesiee Catholicse) credere Deum 
figura humani corporis terminatum. — Confess., vi, II. See also Orig. 
Conl. Ccls., 6, and Ambr. in Psa. cxviii. 



The Biblical Cycle. 353 

dove, but for the Father nothing but a voice from 
heaven.* Gregory II., the champion of image -worship, 
denies that it is lawful to make any representation of the 
Divine nature, but only of Our Lord, his mother, and 
the saints. f Such figures were also condemned by the 
second Council of Nice. J John Damascenus, a zealous 
defender of the images of Christ and the saints, yet 
declares it is as great impiety as it is folly to make any 
image of the Divine nature, which is incorporeal, invisi- 
ble, without material or form, incomprehensible, not to be 
circumscribed, nor to be figured by the art of man.§ 
Urban VIII. ordered all representations of the Trinity to 
be burnt, and Benedict XIV. forbade the depicting of 
the Holy Ghost in human form. Dupin asserts that the 
most zealous defenders of images have condemned 
these ; || and the learned and judicious Bingham de- 
clares that " in all ancient history we never meet with 
any one instance of picturing God the Father, because 
it was supposed that he never appeared in any visible 
shape, but only by a voice from heaven."** 

Some recent Roman Catholic writers, however, assert 

* Pleno coruscat Trinitas mysterio ; 
Stat Christus in agno ; vox Patris coelo tonat ; 
Et per columbam Spiritus Sanctus fluit. 
See a valuable note on the doctrine of a Trinity in Classic and 
Hindoo mythology in Whedon's Commentary, vol. ii, p. 77. 

f Greg. II., Ep. 1, ad Leon. \ Act 4. Concil. Nicen., 2. 

§ Hapatypoovvrjr u/cpag nal aaej3ecag to o%?7/zariCfc'fv to 6eiov. k. t. X. 
— De Fide Orthodox, liv. c. 17. 

Dei qui est incorporeus, invisibilis, a materia remotissimus, figurse 
expers, incircumscriptus, et incomprehensibilis, imago nulla fieri 
potest. ... In errore quidem versaremur . . . impie rursum ager- 
emus. ... si vel invisibilis Dei conficeremus imaginem. — Orat. r et 
2 de Imaginibiis. 

\ Les defenseurs les plus zeles des images ayant condamne celles-ci 
i. e., de la Trinite ou de la Divinite. — Dupin : Bibli. Eccles., t. vi, p. 1 54. 
** Orig. Fccles., bk. vi, chap, viii, § IO. 
23 



354 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the contrary of this to be the case, and refer for proof 
of the assertion to one or two sarcophagal bas reliefs 
of the fourth or fifth century. One of these represents 
Cain and Abel bringing their gifts to an aged and 
bearded figure sitting on a stone, who is interpreted b_\ 
the Romanists as the Omnipotent Jehovah. But that 
distinguished archaeologist, Raoul Rochette, himself a 
Romanist, opposes this view. " I doubt," he says, " the 
reality of this explanation, contrary to all that we know 
of the Christian monuments of the first ages, where the 
intervention of the Eternal Father is only indicated in 
the abridged and symbolic manner proper to antiquity, 
by the image of a hand." 

The other alleged sculpture of the Godhead requires 
more careful examination. " The Holy Trinity," says 
Dr. Northcote, " is nowhere represented, as far as I 
know, in the paintings of the Catacombs."* But he 
asserts that a sculptured example occurs on a sarcopha- 
gus of the fifth century, from the Ostian basilica of St. 
Paul's, now in the Lateran Museum. The group re- 
ferred to consists of three bearded figures of advanced 
age, and of grave and strongly-marked features. One of 
these, whom Dr. Northcote designates " the Eternal 
Father, the source and fountain of Deity,"f is seated 
in a raised chair or sort of throne. Behind the chair 
stands another described as representing the Holy 
Ghost, and in front of it the third, identified as the 
" Eternal Word."J At the feet of the latter are two 
diminutive figures, one standing, the other prostrate, 
said to represent the creation of Eve from the side of 
the sleeping Adam. Padre Garrucci, who has published 
a monograph on this subject, identifies none of the 

* Northcote's Catacombs, p. 116. 

\ Rom. Sott.,p. 300. \ Ibid., 301. 



The Biblical Cycle. 355 

adult figures in the same manner as Dr. Northcote, but 
describes the one seated as the Son, the one behind 
him as the Father, and the third as the Holy Ghost.* 

We can accept neither of these explanations, both of 
which are so strongly opposed to the entire spirit and 
character of early Christian art. The formulization of 
the doctrine of the Trinity by the Council of Nice, in 
that noble creed which still expresses the faith of Chris- 
tendom, left, it is true, its impress on Christian art and 
literature. Both in pictorial representation, and, as we 
shall hearafter see, in inscriptions, is there a recorded 
protest against the Arian heresy which at this period 
convulsed and rent the church. De Rossi cites eight 
examples in early Christian art which he conceives to 
have reference to this doctrine ; but in seven of these it 
is indicated by the association of the sacred monogram 
with the triangle, the symbol of tri-unity, and the 
eighth is the unique and anomalous bas relief under 
discussion. 

We have seen that Christ is uniformly exhibited in 
this primitive art as youthful and beardless ; and on 
this very sarcophagus, side by side with this so-called 
sculpture of the Trinity, he is thus seen as the rep- 
resentative of the Deity giving the wheat-sheaf to 
Adam and the lamb to Eve. Yet we are asked to be- 
lieve that in the very next group he is shown, in defi- 
ance of the uniform practice, as heavily bearded and of 
advanced age ; and that the Almighty Father, who is 
substitutionary represented by the Son in the adjoining 
scene, is here exhibited, as well as the Eternal Spirit, in 
human form. Another remarkable discrepancy also 
occurs. The so-called figures of Adam and Eve are of 

* Dissertazioni Archeologiche di Raffaelle Garrucci, (Roma, 4to., 
rS65,) vol. 11, p. 1. 



356 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



most diminutive size, and not nearly as large as the in- 
fant Christ in his mother's arms in the scene of the 
adoration of the Magi immediately below ; * and of 
these the prostrate figure supposed to represent the 
sleeping Adam is considerably the smaller of the two, 
and of the more feminine aspect. This incongruity !s 
the more striking from the immediate proximity of the 
adult figures of Adam and Eve, to which the smaller 
ones bear no rejemblance. The whole group seems to 
correspond better to Solomon's celebrated judgment 
concerning the living and the dead child than to the 
creation of Eve. 

So careful, indeed, were the early Christian artists to 
avoid any representation of 
" the King eternal, immortal, 
invisible," that in the scenes 
where God spake from heav- 
en to Abraham and to Moses 
he is only symbolically in- 
dicated by a hand stretched 
out to stay the knife of the 
patriarch, or surrounded by 
clouds, as if to show more 
strongly its figurative char- 
acter, giving the tables of 
the law to the leader of Is- 
rael. The annexed suggest- 
ive example of this treat- 
Fig. I07.-God Symbolized by ment of w hi c h many others 
a Hand appearing to Abra- ,. J 

ham. might be adduced, is from a 

sarcophagus in the Lateran. See also Fig. 71, p. 290. 

* Dr. Northcote describes a bearded figure standing behind the 
chair of Mary as a representation of the Holy Ghost. Surely the 
more natural interpretation is that it is intended for Joseph. 




The Biblical Cycle. 357 

Throughout the whole range of sacred mosaics at 
Rome from the fourth to the fourteenth century, accord- 
ing to Mr. Hemans, the Supreme Being is never repre- 
sented except symbolically by means of a hand, usually 
holding a crown over the head of Christ, the Virgin, or 
the saints. In later art the hand is sometimes sur- 
rounded by a cruciform nimbus, to indicate more clearly 
its divine character. It is also seen stretched out from 
heaven in pictures of Christ's baptism and transfigura- 
tion, of the agony in the garden, the passion, and 
ascension.* 

It was long before the most audacious hand dared to 
represent in painting or sculpture the omnipotent Jehovah 
or the infinite Spirit, who sustain and pervade the universe. 
M. Emeric David says that the French artists of the ninth 
century had first the "happy boldness" — heureuse har- 
diesse — to depict the Eternal Father under human form.f 
M. Didron asserts that it was. not till the twelfth cen- 
tury that the Divine Being was personally represented, J 
being previously invariably indicated by the symbol of 
a hand, or by the divine name written in a triangle sur- 
rounded by a circle. Previous at least to the earlier of 
these dates, the work of creation and other acts popu- 
larly regarded as proper to the Father are always repre- 
sented as performed by the Son, "who is the image of 

* Ezekiel speaks of the manifestation of God by a " hand sent 
unto him." Ezek. ii, 9. The inspiration of Isaiah, and the divine 
judgments inflicted on Ananias and Sapphira, are thus indicated. 
In a Greek painting at Salamis, executed as late as the eighteenth 
century, the souls of the righteous in a state of beatitude are repre- 
sented by five infant figures held in a gigantic hand projecting from 
the clouds. 

f Discours Sur les Anciens Monumens, pp. 43, 46. The instance 
he refers to occurs in a Latin Bible presented to Charles the Bold 
in A. D. 850. The interpretation, however, is not certain. 

% Iconog,, Chr'et., pp. 55, 205. 



35 8 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the invisible God," "by whom also he made the 
worlds."* Christ is also painted as commanding Noah 
to build the ark, as conversing with Abraham, and as 
speaking to Moses out of the burning bush. He is fre- 
quently represented also in the gigantic frescoes of the 
Byzantine cupolas clothed with awful majesty and bear- 
ing the title O IIANTOKPATfiP, the Almighty ; but the 
addition of the letters IC XC, the contraction for Jes.us 
Christ, assure us that it is not the Father but the Son 
who is meant. 

But the literal conception of the age was not content 
with a symbolical indication of the Deity. By degrees 
the arm as well as the hand was portrayed, and art, 
gradually growing bolder, attempted the representation 
of that face which inspiration declares no man can see 
and live. But at first it is the face alone that is shown. f 
Then, with progressive daring, the bust and upper part 
of the body are painted as reaching forth from the 
clouds, and finally the entire figure appears under vari- . 
ous aspects and in different characters. The Almighty 
is represented armed with sword and bow, as the God 
of battles; as crowned, like a king or emperor; J and 
finally, as Pope, wearing the pontifical tiara and vest- 
ments. In the following example from a stained-glass 
window of the sixteenth century, at Troyes, in France, 
the everlasting Father, throned in glory, crowned with 

* In a Greek painting of as late date as the twelfth or thirteenth 
century, Christ, indicated by the letters fc XC, is represented as 
stretching out his hand over a prostrate figure labeled A A AM O IIP £2- 
TOIIAACTOC — " Adam, the first-born," or rather " the first-formed." 

f In one of these a winged head with cruciform nimbus, surrounded 
by a chaos of stars and planets, utters the word fiat, and the earth 
with its inhabitants are called into being. 

\ In France the Supreme Being was generally represented as King 
in Germany as Emperor, and in Italy as Pope. 



The Biblical Cycle. 359 

a quintuple tiara and robed in alb and tunic, supports a 
cross on which hangs the lifeless body of the Divine 
Son. 




Fig 1 . 108— God the Father as Pope. 

The omnipotent Jehovah is sometimes portrayed as 
1 the Ancient of Days," under the form of a feeble old 
man bowed down by the weight of years, and fain to 
seek support by leaning heavily on a staff, or reposing 
on a couch after the labours of creatio«.* The treat- 
* As in an example at the Madeleine at Paris. 



360 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ment becomes more and more rude, even to the borders 
of the grotesque,* and the conception becomes mean, 
coarse, and vulgar, till all the Divine departs and only 
human feebleness and imbecility remain, indicating at 
once the degradation of taste, decline of piety, and cor- 
ruption of doctrine. 

But this grossness of treatment reaches its most of- 
fensive development in the impious attempt to symbolize 
the sublime mystery of the Holy Trinity by a grotesque 
figure with three heads, or a head with three faces 
joined together, somewhat after the manner of the 
three-headed image of Brahma in the Hindoo mythol- 
ogy.! In other examples the Trinity is represented by 
three harsh stiff and aged figures,J identified by the at- 
tributes of the tiara, cross, and dove, enveloped in one 
common mantle, and jointly crowning the Virgin Mary 
in heaven, whose flowing train the angels humbly bear. 
By this degradation of Deity and exaltation of Mary 

* We have seen a picture of the creation in which the Almighty 
was represented as a feeble old man dressed in ecclesiastical robes, 
with a lantern in his hand. 

f See a fresco by Andrea del Sarto at St. Salvi, Florence, two of the 
fifteenth century at Perugia, and an engraving in a copy of Dante 
printed at Florence in A. D. 1491. In an example given in Ames' 
Typography, a triangular jewel is appended to the three-faced head, the 
inscription on which attempts to explain mathematically the mysterious 
doctrine of the unity in trinity. This mysteiy was also symbolized 
by the shape of some of the ancient monasteries, by the number of 
their cloistered inmates, by the genuflections of the service and the 
parts of the liturgy ; and even the bell and 

" The rope with its twisted cordage three 
Denoted the scriptural Trinity." 

Sometimes the Holy Spirit is represented by a dove proceeding from 
the mouths of the Father and the Son, or even nailed to the cross 
with Christ. 

\ See on the carved stalls of the Amiens Cathedral, and at Vier- 
riSres in the Department de l'Aube, both of the sixteenth century. 



The Biblical Cycle. 361 

•.ve may mark the infinite divergence in faith and prac- 
tice of the modern church of Rome from the simplicity, 
purity, and orthodoxy of the ancient church of the 
Catacombs, as evidenced by that primitive art and 
symbolism whose priceless monuments we have been 
examining. 



362 The Catacombs of Rome. 



CHAPTER IV. 

GILT GLASSES AND OTHER OBJECTS FOUND IN THE 
CATACOMBS. 

Ever since the re-discovery and exploration of the 
Catacombs in the sixteenth century* they have been a 
vast treasury from which, as from an inexhaustible mine, 
have been derived innumerable relics of Christian an- 
tiquity, many of them of inestimable value. Among 
these are a number of gilt glasses of curious design and 
remarkable interest, lamps, vases, rings, seals, toys, 
trinkets, and various objects of domestic use or orna- 
ment. Collections of these relics are found in most of 
the great museums of Europe, especially in those of the 
city of Rome. An account of the more important of 
them will be given in the present chapter. 

Reference has already been made to the numerous 
fragments of gilt glass found in the Catacombs, which 
so remarkably illustrate Christian life in the primitive 
ages. In the last century, Buonarotti described all the 
specimens then known. The distinguished archaeolo- 
gist, Padre Garrucci, has recently exhaustively treated 
these remains of ancient art in his elaborate mono- 
graph on this subject.* They are also profusely illus- 
trated in the magnificent pages of Perret.f 

These glasses are generally mutilated fragments, ap- 

* Vetri ornati di figure in oro trovati nei cimiteri dei Cristiani 
primitivi di Roma raccolti e spiegati da Raffaele Garrucci. — Roma, 
1858. 

\ Qsservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi anticJii di vetro 
ornati di figure t?vvati nei cimiteri di Roma. — Firenze, 1716. 



Various Objects Fotmd Therein. 363 

parently the bottoms of drinking-cups, and occasionally 
of the dish-like shape of the classic patera. They vary 
'n size from about one to four or five inches in diameter 
The design is executed in gold leaf on the bottom of the 
cup ; so as to appear through the glass on the inside, and 
is occasionally beautifully relieved by a dark purple back- 
ground. It is protected by a plate of glass, fused upon 
the lower surface so as to become a solid mass, like the 
glass paper-weights with enclosed ornamental designs 
which are so common. The pictures thus hermetically 
sealed are indestructible so long as the glass is not frac- 
tured. These vessels were apparently affixed at the 
time of burial to the soft plaster of the grave ; but the 
thinner portion, standing out from the cement, has almost 
invariably been broken, while the thick part, imbedded 
in the plaster, has been preserved. Sometimes even the 
solid bottoms of these vessels were fractured in the effort 
to detach them from the walls, and frequently impres- 
sions in the cement indicate where they were affixed. 
They are rarely found in situ, having been destroyed or 
carried off by successive generations of explorers 01 
plunderers. The most important collection is in the 
Vatican Library. In the British Museum are some 
thirty specimens ; in the museums of Paris, Florence, 
and Naples, a less number ; and a few others in vari- 
ous private collections. The entire number extant 
is only three hundred and forty. In the course of a 
quarter of a century De Rossi discovered Dut two 
fragments of these glasses. This extreme rarity is 
doub'tless owing to their excessive fragility, and prob- 
ably also to their being destroyed in large quantities to. 
procure the gold they contain. In some of the extant 
examples portions of this gold has been removed by 
inserting a knife between the plates of glass. Perhaps 



364 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the ingenious avarice of the Jewish " dealers in broken 
glass," notorious even in the days of Martial,* may have 
largely contributed to the destruction of these curious 
remains of Christian antiquity. 

It was thought that the manufacture of these glasses 
was known only at Rome; but in the year 1864 a frag- 
ment of a glass plate, with a number of small gilt me- 
dallions bearing scriptural representations imbedded in 
it, was discovered beneath the surface of the ground 
near the church of St. Severin at Cologne ; and in 1866 
another of similar character was found, accompanied 
by some charred bones, in a stone chest near the same 
place. 

Buonarotti regarded these fragments as having all 
formed part of sacramental vessels ; but the character 
of the designs seems frequently to preclude that idea. 
Several of these are derived from the fables of pagan 
mythology, and seem to indicate, if not heathen origin, 
at least the influence of pagan types. Among them 
are found the figures of Achilles, Hercules, Dsedalus, 
Minerva, Mercury, the Three Graces, Cupid and 
Pysche, and other groups still less congruous with 
Christian thought. Other scenes represent various in- 
dustries, as men sawing, planing, and carving wood ; a 
ship-builder with his men at work ; a tailor, druggist, 
and money-coiner, in their respective shops. Hunting 
scenes, men boxing, and charioteers encouraging their 
horses, also occur. A more numerous series represent 
domestic groups, portraits of husband and wife, w fre- 
quently accompanied by their children, groups of chil- 
dren playing, or sometimes a lady in rich costume, with 

* Transtyberinus ambulator, 
Qui pallentia sulphurata fractis 
Permutat vitreis. — Epig., i, 42. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 365 

cupids holding her mirror and other toilet adjuncts. 
Frequently occurs what seems to be a marriage scene, 
with the bride and bridegroom joining hands over an 
altar, above which Christ is often depicted as plac- 
ing crowns on their heads. Sometimes is expressed in 
gilt letters the beautiful wish vivatis in deo — " May 
you live in God." In one instance it is a winged cupid 
that bestows the crown. 

The majority of the scenes, however, are of a dis- 
tinctively Christian character, comprising most of the 
subjects in the symbolical and biblical cycles already 
described ; but from the conditions of space, which 
are often exceedingly limited, the design is frequently 
of a very rudimentary type. In the large patera of 
Cologne the medallions contain the separate parts 
of different groups, which are only intelligible as a 
whole. Besides the ordinary scenes from Old and 
New Testament history there is a unique example of 
the triumph of Christ, in which die appears in fulness of 
glory holding the globe of sovereignty; while opposite 
to him stands a figure, interpreted by Garrucci as Isaiah 
prophesying the advent of the Light of the World. Per- 
ret also figures one example of Christ on the cross, with 
Mary and John beside it, which he thinks is later than 
the sixth century. 

Another class exhibits representations of the Virgin 
Mary, generally in the attitude of prayer, either alone, 
or standing between St. Peter and St. Paul, which posi- 
tion is also often occupied by St. Agnes or some other 
female saint. More frequently recurring than any 
other figures are those of St. Peter and St. Paul. They 
are found on eighty out of three hundred and forty 
specimens figured by Garrucci, or nearly one fourth of 
the whole. They appear generally as busts side by side, 



366 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



without the slightest indication of the superiority of 
one over the other, Peter being often on the left instead 
of the right, which, according to the Romish theory of 
his primacy, he should always occupy. Indeed, theii 
perfect parity in dignity and honour is implied in the 
single crown sometimes suspended over their heads, or 
by their simultaneous crowning by Christ, who appears 
between or above them. Other saints are also repre- 
sented, who are discriminated by labels bearing their 
names, as Lawrence, Vincent, Sixtus, Callixtus, Hip- 
polytus, etc. There are also five or six specimens ex- 
hibiting Jewish symbols, the ark of the covenant and 
the rolls of the law. From the technical difficulties in 
the employment of a rather intractable material, as well 
as from the general decline of art, the execution is often 
uncouth and stiff. " The faithful," says Buonarotti, 

"desiring to 
adorn these va- 
ses with pious 
symbols, were 
forced to avail 
themselves of in- 
expert workmen, 
or even those 
who pursued 
other trades."* 
The accompa- 
nying is a char- 
acteristic exam- 
ple, from this 
author, of the 




Figr. 109. -Domestic Group in Gilt Glass. 



* Sicche volendo i fedeli. adornar con simboli devoti i loro vasi, 
erano forzati per lo pih a va.ler.si di artefici inesperti, e che professa- 
vano all re mestieri. — Dc Vetrl Cemeteriali. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 367 

domestic class. It exhibits a husband, wife, and child, 
with the motto in Latin characters, pie zeses — " Drink 
and live." Between the faces is an object like an an- 
cient lachrymatory. 

It is probable that these vessels were designed not 
for sacramental solemnities, but for occasions of domes- 
tic and social rejoicing, as nuptial, baptismal, and anni- 
versary festivals ; and for the celebration of the Agape, 
or love -feast, after it had lost the religious character it 
possessed in early times. Hence the selection of a 
comparatively gay and mundane class of subjects ; some 
derived from pagan art, and others implying a conform- 
ity to the fashionable follies and amusements of the 
world, and indicating a decline of piety and corruption 
of manners. 

Garrucci thinks, from the large proportion of glasses 
bearing the effigies of St. Peter and St. Paul, that those 
at least were used in connexion with the feast in honour 
of these saints, which in the fourth and fifth centuries 
was celebrated in Rome as a public holiday, with much 
of the vulgar merriment with which the peasants of the 
Campagna keep their festa to-day. Mr. Brownlow hints 
the possibility that the "idea of restraining the pota- 
tions of the Roman Christians, by depicting figures 
which could only be seen to advantage when the glass 
was empty, suggested the use of these gilded cups."* 

The festive purpose for which many of these vessels 
was designed is indicated by the convivial character of 
the inscriptions they bear. Mr. Brownlow has trans- 
lated the following examples in this sense : f dignitas 

AMICORVM PIE ZESES CVM TVIS OMNIBVS BIBE ET PRO- 

pina — "A mark ")f friendship; drink, and (long) life to 

thee, with all thine ; drink, and propose a toast ; " cvm 

* Rom. Soft., p. 2S3. f Ibid. 



368 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tvis feliciter zeses — " Mayest thou live happily with 
thine own ; " or, more freely, " Life and happiness to 
thee and thine ; " HIE ZESES EN ArAGOIS— " Drink 
and live among the good." 

Sometimes these inscriptions breathe a spirit of pious 
congratulation and good-will, as the following from Per- 
ret : hilaris vivas cvm tvis omnibvs feliciter sem- 
per in pace dei zeses — " Joyfully mayest thou live with 
all thine ; happily mayest thou live forever in the peace 
of God." Augustine, describing in his Confessions the 
devout celebration of the anniversaries of the saints by 
his mother, Monica, says she used to bring to the fes- 
tivals " a small cup of wine diluted according to her 
own abstemious habits, which for courtesy she would 
taste."* 

Although it is impossible that all these vessels were 
designed for sacramental purposes, yet it is not improb- 
able that some of them were used as patens and chalices 
in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Tertullian 
speaks of the representation of the Good Shepherd on 
the sacred cup in a manner which seems to imply sim- 
ilarity of material and ornamentation. f The Liber 
Pontificalis states that glass patens were in use in the 
third century. When these were superseded by gold 
and silver vessels they would not improbably be placed 
as memorials on the tombs of departed saints. J 

* " Unde dignationem sumeret." — Con/., vi, 2. Compare with the 
expression dignitas in the previous inscription. 

f Pastor quem in calice depingis. — De Pudicit., c. 7. Ipsse pictura 
calicum vestrorum, si vel in illis perlucebit interpretatio, . . . et ego 
ejus pastoris scripturam haurio qui non potest frangi. — Ibid., 10. 

\ Glass chalices are common, indeed it is said universal, at the 
present day in the Coptic churches of Egypt. The San Greal, or re- 
puted vessel of the institution of the Lord's Supper, preserved in the 
Cathedral of Genoa, is, curiously enough, of glass, of a hexagonal form. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 369 

It is difficult to determine even the proximate date 
of these glasses. From the degraded character of their 
art they are evidently of a comparatively late period. 
Garrucci and some other writers, indeed, assign them to 
the third or fourth century ; but from the occurrence of 
the nimbus, and for other technical reasons, Marriott 
attributes many of them to the fifth or sixth century.* 
Other peculiarities of execution are characteristic of 
Byzantine art, and a writer in the Revue Chretienne 
asserts that there is not a single example of this mode 
of treatment known to belong to the Roman period. 
The striking corruption of doctrine and practice indi- 
cated is also an evidence of late origin. 

Numerous small cups or flasks, known as ampulla, have 
been found affixed to the walls or imbedded in the 
plaster of the tombs, frequently containing in the bot- 
tom a reddish deposit. This Bosio concluded was 
dried blood, and therefore asserted that these cups were 
irrefragable proofs of the martyrdom of the persons to 
whose graves they were attached. The Roman eccle- 
siastical authorities received this theory with enthusi- 
asm, and in the year 1688 issued a decree that, "The 
Holy Congregation of Relics, having carefully examined 
the matter, decides that the palm and vessel tinged with 
blood are to be considered most certain signs of mar- 
tyrdom." Eminent Romanist writers have unflinch- 
ingly asserted, without the least corroboration of their 
theory from contemporary evidence, that these cups 
were filled with the martyr's blood and affixed to his 
^rave ; f — another example of the fatal mistake of Rome 

* P. 16, first foot note. Both Christ and Mary have the nimbus. 
The legend Christus et Istafanus on one example, indicating a tran 
sition into modern Italian, implies a late date. 

\ Rock's Hierurgia, p. 269. 

24 



37° The Catacombs of Rome. 

in fortifying truth with the bulwark of falsehood, and 
thus shaking our confidence even in that which is real. 
The Acts of the Martyrs, indeed, mention the collect- 
ing of their blood in napkins, sponges, or veils, to keep 
as a talisman and heirloom at home ; but never of its 
preservation in a cup, or burial beside their graves. 
This symbol does not occur on the tombs of some who 
were unquestionably martyrs ; * and some who have it, 
from their extreme youth, or from some other reason 
indicated by the inscription, cannot have belonged to 
that honoured class. f Moreover, as Mr. Seymour re- 
marks, some of these alleged martyr blood-cups are of 
a form and exhibit designs unknown till long after the 
age of persecution.^ In the example on the following 
page, given by Aringhi, the inscription is unwarrantably 
translated by Romanist eplgraphists, " the blood of Sat- 
urnius;" instead of, in analogy with numerous other 
inscriptions, " the place [locus] of holy Saturnius." 

The chemist Leibnitz analyzed the red deposit in 
these vessels, and found that it was composed of organic 
matter, but does not hazard the assertion that it is 
blood. It has been suggested by Rostell, with whom 

* See the epitaphs of Lannus and Gordianus, p. 98. 

f Muratori gives the epitaph of a girl of the age of two years and 
twenty days, on whose tombstone this cup was found, and feeling the 
absurdity of this theory, but unwilling to controvert the decree of the 
Congregation of Relics, he adds ironically, " In these sacred cemete- 
ries you especially wonder at two things, namely, that when so many 
glass or figured vases occur no mention is made in the inscriptions 
of martyrdom ; and especially that infants suffered death on account 
of faith in Christ " — In sacris iis ccemeteriis duo potissimum mireris, 
Nempe quum tot Vasa vitrea aut figulina occurrant, nullam tamen 
in ipsis inscriptionibus mortis pro Christo toleratse mentionem haberi, 
et praeterea Infantes ob Fidem Christi morti datos fuisse. — Nov. 
Tkesaur., Vet.Ivscrip., p. 1958, No. 8. 

\ Mornings with the Jesuits, p. 222. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 371 




Fig. 110. Reputed Martyr Relic from the Catacombs. 

Rochette agrees, that these cups were sacramental ves- 
sels, and that the sediment was the lees of wine, which 
would yield a similar organic residuum. The desire to 
express fellowship with the departed in the celebration 
of the Agape, or the Eucharist, which often took place 
beside their graves, may have led to the custom of affix- 
ing these vessels to the tombs and replenishing them 
with wine. We know that this yearning of the human 
heart led in course of time to the offering of the sacra- 
ment to the dead, and the burying it in their graves.* 



* The Third Council of Carthage in the year 397 forbade this 
practice,because Christ said, " Take and eat," whereas a dead body 
can neither take nor eat — Placuit ut corporibus defunctorum eucha- 
ristia non detur. Dictum est enim a Domino Accipite et edite : ca- 
davera autem nee accipere possunt, nee edere. — Cone. Catk., 3, can. 
6. Chrysostom also denounces the practice because the words were 
;poken to the living and not to the dead. — Horn., 40, in I Cor. Greg- 
ory the Great speaks of the burial of the Eucharist with the dead, 
"Jussit communionem Dominici corporis in pectus defuncti reponi 
atque sic tumulari." — Greg. Dial., lib. ii, c. 24. Maitland thinks that 
these cups were probably depositories for aromatic gums much used 
iii the interment of the dead. 



37 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

The occurrence of the palm branch engraved or 
painted on the tomb was also, as we have seen, de- 
clared by the Congregation of Relics to be a certain sign 
of a martyr's tomb. But this was a common symbol of 
victory both among the pagans and Jews, and therefore 
was naturally adopted by the Christians in token of 
their being " more than conquerors " through Christ, 
without any reference to martyrdom. It is found, more- 
over, on graves posterior to the times of persecution, on 
those of children, and even on a tomb which a man had 
prepared for himself while yet alive. Muratori, who 
gives this example, though a devout Romanist, says the 
palm was by no means a sign of martyrdom.* Other 
criteria of martyrdom were also adopted, as the occur- 
rence of the laurel and the olive crown, and the appear- 
ance of oranti on the tombs; but the former are also 
common to paganism, and in Christian epigraphy adorn 
the graves of very young children, and the latter fre- 
quently occur on the sarcophagi after the age of perse- 
cution had passed. 

It is remarkable that so few allusions to martyrdom 
occur in the Catacombs. In the whole range of the in- 
scriptions, as before observed, only five, some of which 
may be spurious, commemorate martyrs, or less than 
one in two thousand. The pictorial representations of 
this event are less frequent still. In the cemetery of 
St. Priscillawas discovered a terra cotta bas relief of the 
martyrdom of St. Sebastian, but evidently of late date : 
the soldiers are armed with cross-bows, and are clad 
apparently in mediaeval plate armour. This subject has 
at all times been a favourite theme of Italian art, and 
this relief may have been left at the shrine 'of the 

* " Ergo palma indicium minime Martyri fuit." — The inscription, 
which bears two palms, reads thus— leoi>ari>vs se bibv fecit. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 373 

saints by some pious pilgrim of the Middle Ages. In 
the Catacomb of Callixtus is a painting of two Chris- 
tians standing before the tribunal of a Roman magistrate. 
This is probably of the early centuries, but how differ- 
ent from the gross and bloody martyr-pictures in the 
church of S. Steffano in Rotoiido in Rome. On one of 
the gilt glasses, executed long after the days of persecu- 
tion, is a group supposed to represent Isaiah sawn 
asunder, and in one of the Catacombs is a scene thought 
to indicate the martyrdom of Hippolytus. The pictures 
of Daniel and the three Hebrews indicate rather the 
triumph than the trial of God's saints. 

The martyrs left no outward memorial of their suffer- 
ings, nor was any needed, for their intrepid spirit ani- 
mated the whole Christian community. D'Agincourt 
says he found in thirty years' exploration only one pic- 
ture, and that of late and barbarian design, portraying 
martyrdom.* Those who themselves stood in jeopardy 
every hour did not magnify the merit of the faithful 
confession of Christ, whom they considered alone de- 
serving of the title of " Faithful and True Witness." No 
sacred litany entreated St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. 
Vincent, and all holy martyrs, to pray for them; nor 
is any such inscription found in the whole range of the 
epigraphy of the Catacombs. f 

In the following rude representation, from a slab in 
the Lapidarian Gallery, Romish imagination has dis- 
covered the outline of a furnace, or of a caldron of 

* II n'a rencontre lui meme dans ces souterrains aucun trace de nul 
autre tableau representant line martyre. — Hist, de I'Art. 

f A fresco of the martyrdom of Felicitas and her seven sons, in an 
ancient chapel within the Baths of Titus, is not later, according to M. 
Rochette, (Mem., de I'Acad. des Inscr., torn, xiii, p. 165,) than the 
seventh century. 



374 The Catacombs of Rome. 

boiling oil in which Victorina was immersed. A com- 
parison with other similar figures indicates that it is 
intended for a corn measure filled with grain, the sign 
of the trade of an ancient meal merchant. 

BICTORI oQ?NA(N 
PACE p^XtTWX 

" Victorina in peace and in Christ." 
Fig. Ill .—A Reputed Symbol of Martyrdom. 

In the Vatican Museum are certain truculent-looking 
objects, said by the Roman custodians to be instruments 
of torture taken from the graves of the martyrs.* But 
the locality in which they were found is seldom recorded, 
which deprives them of much of their historic value ; 
and many of them are probably fictitious. Dr. North- 
cote admits that they are often " of doubtful authentic- 
ity," and that "many look more like domestic utensils, 
and seem to be of Etruscan workmanship." " These," he 
adds, " were probably never taken from the Catacombs 
at all." f Others have too modern an appearance to 
admit such a supposition, and look rather, as Maitland 
suggests, as if " taken from the chambers of the Holy 
Inquisition."| Among the most formidable of these 
alleged instruments of martyrdom, as well as the most 
probably genuine, are the terrible plumbatcs and ungulce. 
The former were scourges of small chains loaded with 

* Aringhi has given an entire chapter on this subject, entitled 
" Martyriorum instrumenta una cum martyrum corporibus tumulo re- 
ponuntur." — Rom Sott., i, 29. 

f Catacombs of Rome, pp. in, 112. % Ibid., p. 187. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 375 

bronze or lead, with which, it is recorded, the martyrs 
were often beaten to death.* Aringhi and others have 
affected to discover on the mouldering skeletons of the 
early Christians, after the lapse of fifteen hundred years, 
the marks made by these plumbatce. In one exceptional 
instance given by Bosio,f an orante is represented with 
this dreadful instrument of torture lying beside her. 
The ungulcB, as the name implies, are iron claws or 
hooks, described in the Acts of the Martyrs as em- 
ployed for lacerating their flesh. The dreadful wounds 
they inflict are referred to by Prudentius in his account 
of the martyrdom of St. Vincent : " One covers with 
kisses the double furrows of the ungulce j another is 
glad to wipe the purple stream from the body." 

In the Catacomb of Calepodius was discovered an iron.- 
toothed comb considered to have been similarly employed 
in torturing the martyrs ; in the crypts of St. Alexander, 
among other iron instruments, was found a long narrow 
ladle, which it is thought was used in pouring molten lead 
down their throats ; and in the cemetery of St. Agnes an 
iron hook, designed, as Aringhi conceived, for dragging 
their bodies after death. In the Vatican Museum is 
also a pair of iron forceps, with horrid trenchant teeth 
and the remains of wooden handles, probably employed 
in pinching and tearing the flesh of the helpless victims 
of heathen rage. A similar forceps is sometimes en- 
graved on a funeral slab, where, in accordance with 
analogous examples, it probably indicated the trade of 
the deceased as a smith. The genius of primitive 
Christianity was averse to recording the circumstances 
of the believer's death, and made slight allusion to the 

* " Flagellum quoddam ad corpus excruciandum," is the phrase 
of Aringhi. 

f Rom. Sott., p. 3S7. 



376 The Catacombs of Rome. 

sufferings of the martyrs. Although it is possible that 
some of these relics of persecution may be genuine, 
yet it is difficult to conceive how the Christians could 
obtain from the pagan authorities these instruments of 
torture, or why they should bury them with the martyred 
dead; and these considerations will account for the ex- 
treme rarity of their authentic occurrence. 

Vast numbers of lamps have been found in the Cata- 
combs, and specimens abound in almost every antiqua- 
rian museum. They must have been absolutely neces- 
sary to dispel the darkness of these gloomy crypts, so 
as to render them safe for the solemnizing of funeral 
rites, for worship, or for sanctuary from oppression. 
They are of varying material and design, but are for 
the most part of terra cotta of the ordinary antique 
pattern and of common workmanship. Many, however, 
were executed in bronze or iron, often with considerable 
taste and skill. Some of these had bronze chains by 
which to suspend them from the ceiling of the cham- 
bers or corridors. Those in terra xotta had frequently 
handles by which they could be carried ; most, how- 
ever, were without either, and were placed in niches in 
the tufa near the stairways, at the entrances of the prin- 
cipal galleries, at the angles of the corridors, and in 
the cubicula used for purposes of worship. 

These lamps generally bore some Christian symbol, 
as the sacred monogram, the Good Shepherd, the palm, 
fish, or dove, and not unfrequently the heads of St. 
Peter and St. Paul. Sometimes the lamp itself was 
made in the shape of a boat, the emblem of the church 
voyaging through a stormy sea to the shores of eternity; 
of the mystic fish, whose representation entered so 
largely into primitive art ; of a dove, the symbol of the 
believer's guilelessness and purity ; or of a cock, the 



Various Objects Found Therein. 



377 



emblem of vigilance, a monition that he should watch 
and be sober. They frequently bear inscriptions refer- 
ring to the five virgins, or to the source of true spiritual 
illumination, the divine word, which is a lamp unto the 
feet and a light unto the path. On one example occurs 
the legend, qvasi lvcernae lvcenti in caliginoso 
loco — "As a light shining in a dark place," a senti- 
ment peculiarly appropriate to those gloomy cham- 
bers of death, which 
were nevertheless il- 
lumined by the glori- 
ous hope of a blissful 
immortality. 

The accompanying 
example of a symbol- 
ical lamp in the form 
of a boat, furnished 
with chains and ring 
for suspension, is 
characteristic type.* 
The figures in the 
little bark are inter- 
preted by Roman 
archaeologists as Pe- 
ter and Paul — the 
pilot of the Galilean 
lake as the chief of 
the apostles holding 

* Perret, torn, iv, planche 2. The ship was a favourite type of 
the church during the Middle Ages. In the church of St. Etienne- 
du-Mont, at Paris, is a representation of a vessel crowded with pas- 
sengers, among whom the portrait of Francis I. has been recognized. 
In an ancient Merovingian MS. missal the same idea is repeated, 
only the Holy Spirit is substituted as pilot — Bene gubernatus esl 
Spiritus Sanctus. 




-Early Christian Symbol- 
ical Lamp. 



578 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



the rudder and guiding the fortunes of the church. The 
tablet on the mast bears the inscription — dominvs 

LEGEM DAT. VALERIO SEVERO EVTROPIO. VIVAS "The 

Lord gives the word. To Valerius Severus Eutropius, 
May you live." 

Fig. 113 exhibits a lamp from the Catacombs, on the 
upper part of which the ever-recurring ichthyic symbol 
is repeated, and on the handle the sacred monogram of 
the name of Our Lord. The lamp is replenished at the 
central opening. They sometimes burn with two or 
three lights. See also the terra cotta lamp with handle 
and medallion in Fig. 114, and the hanging lamps 
shown in Figs. 23 and 24. 




Fig. 113— Symbolical Lamp from the Catacombs. 



A lamp figured by Perret has the sacred monogram 
surrounded by the heads of the twelve apostles. On 
another found in the Jewish Catacomb is a representa- 
tion of the seven-branched candlestick. This also 
occurs in Christian symbolism, and probably is emblem- 
atic, as has been suggested by Dr. McCaul, of the 
sevenfold gifts of the Spirit of divine illumination. 

The necessary use of lights in the funeral solemnities 
of the church in the Catacombs was probably the origin 
of the Romish usage of burying the dead with the 



Various Objects Found Therein. 379 

accompaniment of burning tapers even amid the blaze 
of day. It was also a heathen custom, in the adoption 
of which, as in so many other things, the Catholic be- 
came the pagan's heir.* Jerome mentions its observ- 
ance in his day at the funeral of the famous Lady 
Paula.f Several others of the later Fathers mention 
the same practice. , 

From the illumination of the subterranean chapels 
was also derived the custom of burning altar lights, 
which early became prevalent, and which is so striking 
a feature of modern Romanism. J The first step in this 
direction seems to have been the practice of burning 
tapers before the shrines of the martyrs in the Catacombs, 
probably for the convenience of pilgrims to their tombs, 
which practice was continued in the churches erected 
over their remains. The Council of Elvira forbade the 
custom, § which Vigilantius vehemently denounced as 
an imitation of the pagan superstition of lighting lamps 
at the graves of the dead.|| "We almost see," he says, 

* La Corinne. 

f Translata episcoporum manibus, cum alii pontifices lampadas 
cereosque prseferrent. — Hieron., Ep. 27, ad Eustach., in Epitaph. 
Panics. 

X Sometimes a single candelabrum bears three hundred and sixty- 
five lights, emblematic of the days of the year. More impressive is 
a solitary lamp ever burning at some lowly shrine, the type of the 
flame of love burning in perpetual adoration on the altar of the heart, 
§ Canon., 34. 

|| The following inscription from Grater indicates this practice : 

QVISQVE • HVIC • TVMVLO 

POSVIT • ARDENTEM • LVCERNAM 

ILLIVS • CINERES • AVREA • TERRA • TEGAT. 

" Who ever places a burning lamp before this tomb, may a golden 
soil cover his ashes." 

Lactantius accuses the pagans of burning lights to God as to one 
living in darkness, {Institut. Divin., lib. vi, cap. 2,) and the Theo- 
dobian Code forbids the custom. 



380 The Catacombs of Rome. 

" the ceremonial of the heathen introduced into the 
churches under the guise of religion — piles of candles 
lighted while the sun is shining. . . . Great honour do 
such persons as do this," he adds, " render to the 
blessed martyrs, thinking with miserable tapers to illu- 
mine those whom the Lamb in the midst of the throne 
shines upon»with the splendour of his glory."* In the 
fifth century, however, the custom of thus striving to do 
" vain honour to the Father of lights " had become 
established. 

Numerous terra cotta vases of varying size and shape 
have been found in the Catacombs. Some of these 
were quite large, and were probably used for holding 
water or wine for the fossors, or perhaps for the refugees 
from persecution. The first vase in the engraving on the 
following page, which is exactly the shape of the classic 
amphora,! is over three feet high. The acute termination 
at the bottom was set in a stand or stuck in the ground, 
so that the vessel stood upright. Many amphoree have 
been found in this position in the cellars of Pompeii. 
The upper right hand object is furnished with a spout, 
and an opening for replenishing the vessel. That in 
the lower right hand corner is a lamp with a handle for 
carrying it, ornamented by medallion heads of St. Pe- 
ter and St. Paul. The small flasks in the centre of the 
engraving are of enamel and purple glass, about an 
inch high, probably for holding precious unguents. 
These miniature vases were sometimes made of agate, 
and were occasionally in the shape of a bee-hive, 

* Prope ritum gentilium \idemus sub prsetextu religionis intro- 
ductum in ecclesias, sole adhuc fulgente moles cereorum accendi, 
etc. — Adv. Vigil., ii. 

f From a/Mbi and <4epw- -on account of the handles on each side of 
the neck. They were also called diota, or two-eared, from 6luttj. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 



38i 



probably emblematic of the milk and honey given at 
oaptism, to signify the sincere milk of the word and 
the sweets of salvation imparted to new-born babes of 
Christ* 




Pig. 1 14.— Earthen Vessels from the Catacombs. 

Some of these vessels are shallow basins rather than 
vases, (see above, and also Fig. 116,) which have been 
interpreted by Roman Catholic writers as benitiers. or 
holy-water vessels employed in the services of the 

* Lac significat innocentiam parvulorum. — Hieron., in Esai. lv, I. 
Deinde egressos lactis et mellis prsegustare concordiam ad infantile 
significationem. — Ibid., Contr. Lucif., c. 4. See also Tertul., de 
Coron. Mil., c. 3 ; Clem. Alex., P&dagog., lib. i, c. 6. 



$%2 



The CaLicombs of Rome, 



Romish ritual. They were more probably ablutionary 
basins for the use of the fossors, summoned from their 
grimy labour to assist in the funeral solemnities; or, 
possibly, for the symbolical washing of the hands by the 
primitive bishops and presbyters before the consecra- 
tion of the eucharist, which is mentioned by several of 
the Fathers as a fulfilment of that Scripture, " I will 
wash mine hands in innocency ; so will I compass thine 



altar, O Lord." 
baptismal vases. 



They have also been regarded as 



Generally this primitive pottery, ex- 
cept the fictile lamps, bears no distinc- 
tive Christian symbol ; yet sometimes it 
does, as the accompanying amphora, 
the bottom of which has been broken 
off. Around the vessel runs the inscrip- 
tion, vincenti pie zese — "Vincent, 
drink and live." On the lower part 
are three conquering horses, probably 
in allusion to the name Vincent. Above 
the horses is the inscription, aegis 
oikoymene zep, written backwards. 

The tall vessels shown in Fig. 116, 
which are of silver with gold coating, 
are described by Perret as designed for 
holding the holy chrism,! or sacred 
anointing oil. They were more proba- 
bly used for containing the wine for the eucharist, for 
which they were of sufficient size, as the subterranean 
assemblies could not be very numerous. On the large 

* Nam utique et altare portarent et vasa ejus, et aquam in manus 
funderent sarcerdoti, sicut videmus per omnes ecclesias— Aug., Quasi. 
Vet. et Nov. Test., qu. 101. See also Cyril, Catech. Myst., 5, n. [. 

f " Renfermer le Saint-ckreme." Tom. i, p. 266. 




Various Objects Found Therein. 383 

medallion is a bust of St. Paul, and on the reverse that 
of St. Peter. On the other vessel, besides the busts of 
these saints, is that of Our Lord wearing a nimbus, to- 
gether with the sacred symbols of the cross, doves, and 
lambs. The nimbus, the form of the cross, the material, 
and the style of execution, indicate a comparatively late 
date Some of the vessels we have described were 
doubtless employed also in the celebration of the Agape. 




Fig. 116— Metal and Earthen Vessels from the Catacombs. 

Among the most interesting objects found in the Cat- 
acombs are the rings and seals of the early Christians, 
which are frequently combined in one. Tertullian speaks 
of the annulus pronubus, or ring of espousal, the wearing 
of which was the only use of gold known to the Roman 
women in the days of primitive simplicity ; * and St. 

* Cum aurum nulla norat pneter unico digito, quern sponsu? op- 
pignerasset anmilo pronubo. — Apol., c. 6. 



3 84 The Catacon&s of Rome. 

Agnes declares her betrothal to Christ by the ring of 
his faith.* A signet ring was also considered an essen- 
tial part of the bridal outfit of a*newly wedded wife, and 
that not for ostentation, says Clement of Alexandria, 
but that, being entrusted with the care of domestic con- 
cerns, she may seal up those household treasures which 
might otherwise be insecure. f But these rings must be 
freed from every trace of idolatrous superstition, and 
bear only Christian symbols. " On our signet rings," 
says the writer just mentioned, J "let there be seen only 
a dove, or a fish, or a ship sailing toward heaven, or a 
lyre, or an anchor ; for those men ought not to engrave 
idolatrous forms to whom the use of them is forbidden ; 
those can engrave no sword and bow who seek for 
peace ; the friends of temperance cannot engrave drink- 
ing cups." 

Signet rings, being ancient symbols of authority, § 
were also worn by bishops as a sort of badge of office, 
and as a pledge of their spiritual espousal to the church 
of Christ. A curious episcopal ring worn by St. Arnulf, 
bishop of Metz, in the sixth century, exhibits the well- 
known ichthyic symbol. || 

The ring shown in Fig. 117 bears the sacred mono- 
gram accompanied by the significant Alpha and Omega. 
In the seal, or intaglio, copied in Fig. 118, the ship of the 
church is represented as borne by the symbolical fish, 
while doves, the emblem of the faithful, perch upon the 
mast and stern. In naive blending of the literal with 
the figurative, Our Lord in bodily presence is seen ap- 

* Et annulo fidei suae subarravit me. — In Ambr. Ep. 31. 
f Clem. Alex., Peedagog., in, 2. \ Ibid. 

§ See the example of Pharaoh, Gen. xli, 42 ; and Ahasuerus, Esther 
iii, 10, and viii, 2. 

|| Pitra, Spicil. Solesm., torn, iii, tab. iii, n. 4. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 



385 



proaching the vessel and supporting Peter by the hand, 
doubtless in allusion to the trial of his faith on the Sea 
of Galilee. The identity of both figures is indicated 
by the names written overhead. Two other apostles 
row the vessel, and a third lifts up his hands in prayer. 
It was doubtless a seal of this character to which Clement 
of Alexandria alludes as bearing the vavg ovpavodpa- 
fwvna — "the ship in full sail for heaven." 




Fig. 1 17— A Ring from the Cat- Pig. 1 18.— A Seal from the 

Catacombs. 



On some signet rings in the Museum of Naples, found 
in the ruins of Pompeii, are the Christian symbols of 
the mystical fish, palms, and the anchor of hope, or 
the synonymous word EAIIIC. These are almost the 
sole indications of the existence of any Christian ele- 
ment in that gay, luxurious city. Other Pompeian rings 
bear light Epicurean mottoes, as: EYTTXl IIANOIKI O 
<t>EPQN — " Good luck to thee, O wearer, and to all 
thine ; " AETOYCIN A 0EAOYCIN AErETflCAN OT MEA1MOI 
— " They say what they will ; let them say, I care 
not." Another has an engraving of a finger holding 
an ear, with the word, MNHMONEYE — " Remember." 
Other Roman rings bear such mottoes as, amo te ama 
me — " I love thee, love thou me ; " pignvs amoris — 
" A pledge of love ; " vni ambrosia venenvm caeteris 
—''To one nectar, to others poison." 
25 



386 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



More frequently than the seal itself occurs its im- 
pression in the plaster of the graves, either to express 
some Christian sentiment, or as a means of recognizing 
a tomb which bore no other mark. The stamp of 
coins, or even shells, stuck into the plaster, were used 
apparently for the same purpose. In the following en- 
graving are represented impressions of two of these 
seals. In the first is the confession of faith in the divin- 
ity of Our Lord by some orthodox Christian, probably 
in the time of the Arian heresy. In the second a de- 
vout believer declares his hope in Christ. 





CHRISTVS EST DEVS. SPES IN EO. 

Christ is God. Hope in Him, i. e., in Christ. 

Fig. 1 19— Impressions of Early Christian Seals. 



Other seals bear such pious mottoes as devs dedit — 
" God gave ; " vivas in deo — " May you live in God ; ' 
spes in deo — " Hope in God ; " pede secvndo — " May 
you succeed happily." Vast numbers of tiles bearing 
impressions of the die upon them are found, but these 
are merely the stamps of the imperial brick kilns, with 
the names of the reigning sovereigns. 

Affecting memorials of domestic affection are found 
in the toys and trinkets of little children enclosed in 
their graves or affixed to the plaster without. The dolls 
in the following engraving strikingly resemble those with 
which children amuse themselves to-day. They are 
made of ivory, and some are furnished with wires, by 



Various Objects Found Therein. 



387 




Fig. 120— Children's Toys found in the 
Catacombs. 



which the joints can be worked after the manner of the 
modern marionettes. The object in the upper left hand 
corner is a terra 
cotta vase with a 
narrow slit for 
receiving money, 
like the common 
children's sav- 
ings banks. Be- 
neath it is an 
ivory ring. The 
other objects are 
small bronze 
bells, forming 
part of a child's 
rattle. In the 
Catacomb of St. Sebastian was also found a small 
terra cotta horse of rude design, dappled with coloured 
spots. 

The human affections are the same in every age. 
These simple objects speak more directly to the heart 
than " storied urn or animated bust." As we gaze upon 
these childish toys in the Vatican Museum the centuries 
vanish, and busy fancy pictures the weeping Roman 
mother placing these cherished relics of her dead babe 
in its waxen hands or by its side, as it is laid from her 
loving arms in the cold embrace of the rocky grave, and 
then, with tear-dimmed eyes, taking a last, long, linger- 
ing farewell of the loved form about to be closed from 
her sight forever. 

Numerous toilet articles have also been found in the 
Catacombs, generally in the graves of the dead or cement- 
ed by the plaster to the tombs. Many of these have been 
plundered and lost; but still a very interesting collec- 



388 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tion exists in the Vatican Library. Amcng its contents 
are long silver or ivory bodkins for the hair, combs of 
box or ivory, scent-bottles and boxes of perfume, 
broaches, earrings, bracelets, sometimes with keys to 
unlock the clasps, and other ornaments in bronze, sil- 
ver, or gold.* The simpler manners of the Christian 
women, as compared with those of pagan faith around 
them, is indicated by the conspicuous absence of the 
rouge pots and jars of cosmetics, and many other arti- 
cles of luxury, which formed so important a part of the 
toilet requisites of Rome's proud dames, and which are 
so frequently found in the ruins of Pompeii. The 
Christian ornaments, moreover, even after the departure 
from the primitive simplicity of manners, were of a very 
different character from those of the corrupt civilization 
of paganism. Instead of the abominable representa- 
tions of heathen art, suggesting every evil thought, and 
stimulating every vile passion, of which so many exam- 
ples occur in the Museum of Naples, only chaste and 
modest figures are found ; and even the articles of the 
toilet are frequently adorned with pious mottoes. Thus, 
on a bodkin for a lady's hair, probably a love-gift to a 
wife or betrothed bride,. is engraved the beautiful senti- 
ment, romvla semper vivas in deo — " Romula, may you 
ever live in God." Such a religious art seems an antici- 
pation of the day when " Holiness to the Lord " shall 
be written upon the bells of the horses. 

Small caskets of gold or other metal for containing a 



* When the tomb of the Empress Maria, wife of Honorius, was 
opened in 1544, a profusion of ornaments and trinkets were found, 
from which, it is said, not less than thirty-six pounds of gold were 
taken. The Empress Placidia was also interred in similar gorgeous 
funeral pomp, which was, however, consumed in 1577 by the acci- 
dental ignition of her gold-embroidered robes. 



Various Objects Found Therein, 3S9 

portion of the gospels, generally part of the first chap- 
ter of John, which were worn on the neck, have also 
been found. They seem to have been introduced in 
the decline of primitive piety in imitation of the Jewish 
phylactery or pagan amulet, and were probably worn 
for the same superstitious purpose, to avert danger or 
to cure disease. They were condemned by Irenaeus, 
Augustine, Chrysostom, and by the Council of Laodicea, 
as a relic of heathenism.* On a. carved figure of a fish, 
with a hole drilled through it for suspending it from the 
neck, and probably intended for an amulet, is engraved 
the word, CQCA1C — " Mayest thou save us." Medals, 
coins, and what are described as tessane of hospitality, 
by which the early Christians recognized travelling 
members of distant churches as sharers of the same 
faith, and admitted them to their assemblies and their 
homes, have likewise been found. So also have articles 
of domestic economy, as spoons, knives, keys, drinking- 
cups and shells used as such, and even a metallic kettle 
for cooking. Certain articles employed in religious ser- 
vice, as a baptismal font, altars, chairs, etc., will be 

hereafter described. 
1 
This practice of burying with the dead the objects 

which they had employed in life was common to the 
pagans from the earliest Etruscan times to the most re- 
cent heathen sepulture. They interred in the tombs 
of the departed every kind of utensil and implement 
of trade, and even articles of food. M. Rochette per- 
ceives herein a notion, confused and gross though it 
may be, of the immortality of the soul, and a proof of 
that instinct of man which recoils from the thought of 

* Iren., lib. ii, c. 57. Aug., tract 7, in Joan; serm. 215, 
de Tempore. Chrysos., horn, vi, Contr. Judceos. Cone. Laodic, 
can. 36. 



390 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



annihilation.* In like manner, the Christians, although 
animated by a loftier hope, and inspired with an assur- 
ance of eternal deathlessness, long followed this ancient 
custom, even to the extent sometimes of patting the 
piece of money in the mouth of the deceased, intended 
by the heathen for the payment of Charon. f This was 
most probably, in many instances a mere unthinking 
conformity to ancient use and 
wont. Milman asserts that the 
practice of burying money, 
often large sums, with the dead, 
was the cause of the very se- 
vere Roman laws against the 
violations of the tombs, in- 
asmuch as the government 
wished to reserve to itself that 
source of revenue. J 

In the Christian Museum of 
the Vatican is a marble statue 
of the Good Shepherd, figured 
in the accompanying engraving, 
which is believed to be from 
the Catacombs. Although the 
execution is coarse, yet from 
the genera] style Rumohr 
thinks it probably the oldest 




Pig. 121.— Statue of the 
Good Shepherd. 



* II y avait la une notion confuse et grossiere sans doute de l'im- 
mortalite de l'ame, mais il s'y trouvait aussi la preuve sensible et 
palpable de cet instinct de l'homme, qui repugne a l'idee de la de- 
struction de son etre. — Mem. de FAcad. des Inscr., torn, xiii, p. 689. 

f Rochette says that this practice continued down to the time of 
Thomas Aquinas, who wrote against it. 

\ " Gold may justly be taken from the sepulture which no longe : 
contains its original owner," says the minister of Theodoric to a pro 
vincial governor ; " indeed, it is a sort of fault to leave idly hicklei 



Various Objects Found Therein. 391 

extant specimen of Christian statuary.* Sculpture 
seems to have bowed less willingly than painting to the 
new religion, and was much more tardy in laying its 
offerings on the altar of Christianity. It retained also 
much of the spirit of paganism, and never became thor- 
oughly imbued with Christian sentiment. The colossal 
figure of the Galilean fisherman beneath the mighty 
dome of his proud mausoleum — that stateliest fane in 
Christendom — if not indeed the identical statue of the 
Capitoline Jove, is copied from a heathen model. 
The majestic Moses of Michael Angelo seems rather 
the embodied conception of the cloud-compelling 
Phidian Zeus than of the Hebrew patriarch, de- 
scribed as the meekest of men. Even Thorwald- 
sen's sublime figures of Christ and the apostles 
exhibit more of the majesty of antique pagan art 
than of the meek and tender grace of Christianity. 
Sculpture, as M. Rochette well remarks, struck its roots 
deeply into the soil of heathenism, and was with the ut- 
most difficulty transplanted therefrom. It is essentially 
pagan in its character, and is especially adapted for the 
expression of the severer virtues. Painting is more in- 
stinct with Christian spirit, and is the better fitted for 
the representation of the softer graces. 

Moreover, the profession of the sculptor was held in 
abhorrence on account of its connexion with idolatry. 
Tertullian stigmatizes the makers of images as the fos- 

with the dead that which might support the living." — Aurum enim 
justd sepulcro detrahitur, ubi dominus non habetur ; imo culpse genus 
est inutiliter abdita relinquere mortuorum, unde se vita potest susten- 
tare viventium. — Cassiod., Var., iv, 34. 

* Italienische Forschungen, vol. i, p. 168. — The subject of early 
Christian sculpture is fully treated in a recent work by Dr. Wilhelm 
Liibke, entitled Geschichte tier Plastik. Two vols. Leipzig : See- 
aian, 1870. 



39 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ter-fathers of devils and the procurers of idols.* Pru- 
dentius calls Mentor and Phidias the makers and parents 
of the heathen gods.f All who were in any wise con- 
nected with this unhallowed craft were rejected from 
the ordinance of baptism and denied the holy eucharist \ 
'' The ancient Christians," Buonarotti truly remarks, 
" always kept aloof from these arts, by which they might 
have run a risk of polluting themselves with idolatry ; 
and hence it arose that few or none of them devoted 
themselves to painting or to sculpture, which had 
as their principal object the representations of the 
gods or the myths of the heathen." § Hence the 
almost entire absence of Christian statuary from the 
Catacombs. Even the sculptured bas reliefs of the 
sarcophagi before described were for the most part the 
product of that later period, when Christianity, coming 
forth from these subterranean crypts, walked in the light 
of day and basked in the favour of princes. 

This brief notice of early Christian sculpture would 
be incomplete without some reference to the statue of 
the celebrated Hippolytus, bishop of Portus, the most 
remarkable known specimen of that class. It was dis- 
covered by some workmen digging near the church of 
San Lorenzo fuorile mura in the year 155 1, and proba- 
bly originally stood in the adjacent Catacomb of Hip- 

* Qua constantia exorcizabit alumnos suos, quibus domum suam 
cellariam prsestat . . . quid aliud quam procurator idolorum demon- 
straris? — De Idol., c. 11. 

f Fabri deorum, vel parentes numinum. — Peristeph., x, 293. 

\ Constit. Apostol., lib. viii, c. 32. 

§ Stettero sempre lontane di quelle arti, colle quali avessero potuto 
correr pericolo di contaminarsi colla idolatria, e da cio avvenne, die 
pochi, o niuno di essi si diede alia pittura e alia scultura, le quali 
aveano per oggetto principale di rappresentare le deita, e le favole de' 
gentili. — Buonarotti, De' Vetri Coneteriali. 



Various Objects Found Therein. 393 

polytus. The martyr bishop is represented as seated 
in a sort of episcopal chair. The figure is modelled 
with a classic grace and dignity superior to any exam- 
ples of the Constantinian period. Indeed, the distin- 
guished art critic, Winckelmann, declares it to be the 
finest specimen of early Christian sculpture extant. It 
was considerably mutilated, but has been skilfully re- 
stored, and now stands in the Lateran Museum. On 
the base of the chair is engraved a list of the published 
writings of Hippolytus,* and also the table which he con- 
structed for determining the true period of the Easter 
festival. The discovery of an error in this table de- 
prived it of much of its value ; and the date of. this 
monument is probably prior to that discovery, or the 
early part of the third century. 

Passing allusion should also be here made to the early 
Christian diptychs, specimens of which are found in al- 
most every antiquarian museum. These were formed 
after the model of the imperial and consular diptychs, 
or registers of the public officers of Rome. They con- 

* These were exceedingly voluminous, and although several of them 
have perished, those which remain throw great light on one of the 
most obscure periods in the history of the church, and vindicate the 
title of Origen of the West, bestowed on Hippolytus by Pressense. 
Among his most important works were a commentary on the greater 
part ot the Old and New Testament, treatises on Antichrist, on the 
Gifts of the Holy Spirit, on Good and the Origin of Evil, on God 
and the Resurrection. He was especially noted, moreover, as a vig- 
orous and skilful polemic, and wrote against Platonism and Juda- 
ism, and, as we have seen, (page 173,) against Callixtus, bishop of 
Rome, for his pantheistic heresy. His great work, however, is that 
entitled the Philosophonmena. " It is a vast repertory," says Pres- 
sens6, " reviewing all the doctrinal controversies of the church from 
the earliest ages and most obscure beginnings of Gnosticism. Chris- 
tian antiquity has left us no more valuable monument than the treat- 
ise "On all the Heresies" of Hippolytus, discovered a few years 
since araon^ the dusty treasures of a convent of Mount Athos." 



394 The Catacombs of Rome. 

listed of tablets of ivory, wood,, or metal, folded to- 
gether,* and bore the names of the bishops, officers, 
or distinguished patrons of the church, and memorials 
of the martyrs and holy dead. These memorials were 
frequently read in the religious, assemblies of the primi- 
tive church, especially on the anniversaries of the mar- 
tyrs' death. This practice led in course of time to the 
invocation of their aid in the Litany of the Saints, and 
to other errors of Romanism. The diptychs had also 
frequently elaborate, bas reliefs of scenes from the 
biblical cycle, and in the age of image-worship bore the 
figures of the saints to whom a corrupt Christianity had 
begun to pay an idolatrous veneration. They became 
thus the prototype of the illuminated missal of the 
Middle Ages. 

* Whence the name, from dlnrvxov, twofold ; when several tab- 
lets were used they were called •kqTmktvxov, or manifold. 



BOOK THIED. 

THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CATACOMBS. 



CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INSCRIPTIONS. 

Few places in Rome are more attractive to the student 
of Christian archaeology than the Lapidarian Gallery in 
the palace of the Vatican. In this long corridor* are 
preserved a multitude of epigraphic remains of the ven- 
erable past, shattered wrecks of antiquity, which have 
floated down the stream of time, and have here, as in 
a quiet haven, at length found shelter. The walls on 
either side are completely covered with inscribed slabs 
affixed to their surface. On the right hand are arranged 
the pagan monuments collected from the neighbourhood 
of the city — sepulchral and votive tablets, altar dedica- 
tions, fragments of imperial rescripts and edicts, and 
other evidences of the power and splendour of the 
palmy days of Rome. On the left are the humble epi- 
taphs of the early Christians, rudely carved in stone or 
scratched in plaster, and brought hither chiefly from 
the crypts of the Catacombs. Of greater interest to 
him who would rehabilitate the early ages of the church, 
and 

To the sessions of sweet silent thought 
Would summon up remembrance of things past.f 

* It is eight hundred feet in extent, and contains about three thou- 
sand inscriptions. 

f Shakspeare's Sonnets, No. XXX. 



395 The Catacombs of Rome. 

is this long corridor of inscriptions than any of the four 
thousand apartments of that vast palace of the popes, 
with their priceless bronzes, marbles, gems, frescoes, and 
other remains of classic art. He will turn away from 
the noble galleries where the Laocoon forever writhes 
in stone, and Apollo — lord of the unerring bow — watches 
his arrow hurtling toward its mark, to the plain marble 
slabs that line these walls. In the rude inscriptions 
here recorded he will discover some of the strongest 
evidences of revealed religion and most striking proofs 
of the purity of the faith, simplicity of worship, and 
uncorrupted doctrines of the early church. Thus prim- 
itive Christianity lifts its solemn protest in these halls 
of wealth and power, in the very palace of the popes, 
against the anti-Christian system of which they are*i;he 
representatives. 

Here the monuments of pagan and of Christian 
Rome confront each other. The spectator stands be- 
tween two worlds of widest divergence, and cannot but 
be struck with the immense contrast between them. 
"I have spent," says M. Rochette, "many entire days 
in this sanctuary of antiquity, where the sacred and 
profane stand face to face in the written monuments 
preserved to us, as in the days when paganism and 
Christianity, striving with all their powers, were engaged 
in mortal conflict." * On the one side are recorded the 
pride and pomp of worldly rank, the lofty titles and 
manifold distinctions of every class, from divinities to 
slaves. The undying historic names of Rome's mighty 
conquerors, the leaders of her cohorts and legions, 
mingle with those of the proud patrician citizens, and 
alike display on their sepulchral slabs the august array 
of praenomen, nomen, and cognomen, which attest their 

* Tableau des Catacombes, p. x. 



Character of the Inscriptions. 397 

lofty social position or civil power.* The costly carving 
and elaborate bas reliefs of many of these monuments 
indicate the wealth of him whom they commemorate. 
The elegantly turned classic epitaph — with its elegiac 
hexameters breathing the stern and cold philosophy of 
the Stoa, or an utter blankness of despair concerning 
the future, or, perchance, a querulous and passionate 
complaining against the gods — shows how the races 
without the knowledge of the true God met the awful 
mystery of death. The numerous altars to all the 
fabled deities of the Patheon, the vaunting inscriptions 
and lofty attributes ascribed to the shadowy brood of 
Olympus — " unconquered, greatest, and best " — read, 
by the light of to-day, like an unconscious satire on 
the high pretensions of those vanished powers. The 
fragmentary edicts of the emperors, the numerous mili- 
tary trophies, and the records of complicated political 
orders, indicate the might and majesty of the Empire in 
the days of its utmost power and splendour. 

On the other side of the corridor are the humble 
epitaphs of the despised and persecuted Christians, 
many of which, by their rudeness, their brevity, and 
often their marks of ignorance and haste, confirm the 
truth of the Scripture, that " not many mighty, not many 
noble, are called." Yet these " short and simple annals 
of the poor " speak to the heart with a power and pa- 
thos compared with which the loftiest classic eloquence 
seems cold and empty. It is a fascinating task to spell 
out the sculptured legends of the Catacombs — the vast 
graveyard of the primitive church, which seems to give 
up its dead at our questioning, to bear witness concern- 
ing the faith and hope of the Golden Age of Christian- 

* Cf. Juv., " Gaudent praenomine molles auriculae." These are 
very rare in Christian inscriptions. See postea. 



398 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ity. As we muse upon these half-effaced inscrip- 
tions — 

Rudely written, but each letter 

Full of hope, and yet of heart-break, 

Full of all the tender pathos 

Of the Here and the Hereafter — 

we are brought face to face with the church of the early 
centuries, and are enabled to comprehend its spirit bet- 
ter than by means of any other evidence extant. These 
simple epitaphs speak no conventional language like the 
edicts of the emperors, the monuments of the mighty, 
or even the writings of the Fathers ; they utter the cry 
of the human heart in the hours of its deepest emotion ; 
they bridge the gulf of time, and make us feel ourselves 
akin with the suffering, sorrowing, yet triumphant Chris- 
tians of the primitive ages. 

These inscriptions were found in situ in the explora- 
tions of the Catacombs, or were dug up in vineyards in 
the vicinity of the city. They have been diligently 
collected by antiquarians for the last three hundred 
years. Before the year 1578 there were not a thousand 
Christian inscriptions extant in all Italy. Of these not 
one was derived from the Catacombs, and the earliest 
date was the year 533. With all its boasted veneration 
for the past, and professed devotion to the antiquities 
of primitive Christianity, the Church of Rome al- 
lowed the memory of the Catacombs, the shrine and 
sanctuary of the faith in the early centuries, to be as 
completely forgotten as the site of Troy; and even 
after their rediscovery many of their principal records 
of the past were wantonly destroyed or recklessly lost 
through the ignorance or carelessness of their self-con- 
stituted guardians and preservers. Numerous invalua- 
ble inscriptions have perished from the effects of time; 



Character of the Inscriptions. 399 

many have been scattered throughout the public and 
private collections of Europe ; and many more have been 
defaced or ruined by the feet of generations of wor- 
shippers in the churches of whose pavements they 
form a part. Bosio describes many monuments ex- 
tant in his day of which De Rossi saw only the frag- 
ments, and the latter pathetically deplores the destruc- 
tion and devastation of those precious relics of Chris- 
tian antiquity.* 

Christian epigraphy, however, was not altogether ne- 
glected during the Middle Ages. A manuscript col- 
lection of epitaphs found at Einsiedlen, and attributed 
to the ninth century, is partly Christian ; and another, 
found at Kloster Newburg, is exclusively so. A man- 
uscript in St. Mark's Library at Venice contains about 
a hundred and fifty early Christian epitaphs. The 
first collection after the revival of letters was made by 
Pietro Sabini, and another was published by Onofrio Pan- 
vini. Leo X. commanded Raphael, the capo- architetto 
of St. Peter's, to preserve from injury the inscriptions 
— res lapidaria — of the older structure ; but no syste- 
matic attempt at their preservation was made till Bene- 
dict XIV. appointed Francesco Brambini to that task. 
He collected a large number in the long gallery of the 
Vatican ; but they were not arranged till the close of 
the last century, when they were classified by the dis- 

* Demolita et horrendum in modum vastata. — Prolegomena to 
Inscr. Christ. He has often to complain that he is unable to read 
part of the inscription : — Reliqua legere haud potui. Marangoni tells 
us that thousands of epigraphs were taken from the Catacombs to the 
church of St. Maria in Trastevere ; seven cartloads to St. Giovanni 
•de Fiorentini ; two cartloads to another church of St. Giovanni in 
Rome ; yet there are at present only about twenty in the portico of 
the former and not one in either of the two latter churches. See He 
man's Sac. Art. in Italy, pp. 58, 59. 



400 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tinguished archaeologist Geatano Marini at the com- 
mand of Pius VI. A new collection was begun in the 
Lateran Museum by Padre Marchi, which has been 
greatly enlarged and admirably classified and arranged 
by Cavaliere De Rossi. There are also other collections 
in the Collegio Romano, and in the Kircherian and other 
Museums. Many sepulchral slabs are also affixed to 
the walls or inserted in the pavement of the churches 
of St. Paul, St. Gregory, St. Laurence, St. Mark, St. 
Maria in Trastevere, and in a few others in Rome.* 

That distinguished scholar and epigraphist, De Rossi, 
has passed through the crucible of his critical examina- 
tion all the extant inscriptions of the first six centuries 
found in the neighbourhood of Rome. In the first 
volume of his Inscriptiones Christiana he gives all 
those with consular dates, thirteen hundred and sev- 
enty-four in number. He designs giving in future 
volumes the remainder of the series, classified accord- 
ing to their doctrinal, historical, or other character- 
istics. He treats the subject with the utmost candour 
and moderation, and illustrates these frequently ob- 
scure topics with exhaustive and various scholarship. 
There are now over eleven thousand of these epitaphs 
extant, which number is being continually increased 
by the progressive exploration of the Catacombs. 
From an analysis of their general characteristics and 
appearance the following results are derived. 

The inscriptions are generally engraved on marble 
slabs from one to three feet long and one foot high, 
which are used to close the graves of the dead ; many, 
however, are mere scratches on the soft surface of 

* The latter works of Fabretti, Muratori, Orelli, Martigny, Cardinal 
Mai, and Perret contain numerous examples. These have all been 
laid under tribute in preparing these pages. 



Character of the Inscriptions. 401 

the plaster, hardened in drying; and some are written 
with red or black paint, or, more rarely, with char- 
coal. The letters vary from half an inch to four inches 
in height, and the incised surface is frequently coloured 
with a reddish pigment. Prudentius, alluding to this 
practice of chiseling the letters in stone, calls upon the 
faithful to " wash with their tears the furrows of those 
marble slabs."* 

The epitaphs are for the most part written in uncial 
characters, frequently without any separation of the 
words, f although sometimes they are divided by spaces, 
points, or leaves. They frequently abound also in con- 
tractions and monogrammatic abbreviations, imposed by 
limit of space or economy of labour, as in the following 

^" CPHiy^DOWT 



w;\ff 



Fig. 122.—" Gemella sleeps in peace.' 



* Nos pio fletu, date, perluamus 

Marmorum sulcos. — Peristepk., hymn vii. 
•j- We append the following examples by way of illustration : 
CALEVIVSBENDIDITAVINTRISOMVVBIPOSITIERANT 
VINIETCALVILIVSETLVCIVSINPA. 
Calevius sold to Avinius a place for three bodies, where both Cavilius 
and Lucius had (already) been placed in peace. — De Rossi, Inscr. 
Christ,, No. 489. 

TPIAKONTAnENTAETHCENeAAEKlTEYIIATIA 
exrATHPANTflNIOYKBCTANTINOnOAITICCA. 
Here lies Hypatia, thirty-five years of age, daughter of Antonius, 
a native of Constantinople. — De Rossi, No. 583. 

The originals are more difficult to decipher, but with a little prac- 
tice it becomes comparatively easy. Sometimes the letters are of 
greatly varying sizes, as in the following : 

LoCvSavgvStileCToRis. 

The place of Augustus, the Reader. 

26 



402 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Although sometimes well cut, the inscriptions are 
often wretchedly executed, presenting a straggling and 
scarce legible scrawl, as in the following examples, the 
second of which indicates a transition into the later 
cursive character. 



Fig. 123.—" Ligurius Successus, in peace." 






DOMITI 

IN PACE 

LEA FECIT. 



Fig. 124.— "Domitius in peace. Lea erected this."* 

This ancient epigraphy often betrays extreme igno- 
rance, and sets at defiance all the laws of grammatical 
construction. The spelling is frequently atrocious, and 
the general style and character utterly barbarous, ren- 
dering the meaning extremely obscure or altogether 
undecipherable. The language was much corrupted 
by the foreigners and slaves who formed so large a por- 
tion of the population. The later examples are often 
marked by the absence of terminal inflexions and the 
use of prepositions instead, and by other indications 
of the falling to pieces of the stately Latin tongue, 
which had been the vehicle of such a noble literature 
and such lofty eloquence, and of its degeneracy from 

* See, also, the uncouthness of the epitaph of Martyrus, Fig. tg, 
and of Tesaris, Fig. 58. 



Character of the Inscriptions. 403 

the purity of the Augustan era into the mixed dialect 
of the Middle Ages, from which the modern Italian has 
sprung.* 

The barbarous Latinity of the following indicates the 
degradation into which the language had fallen : 

IIBER QVI VIXI QVAI QVO 
PARE 1VA ANOIVE I ANORV 
M PLVI MINVI XXX I PACE. 

Read : Liber, qui vixit cum compare sua annum I. Annorum 
plus minus XXX. In pace. 

Liber, who lived with his wife one year. He lived thirty years, 
more or less. In peace. 

Sometimes the inscription is found upside down, 
being probably thus placed by one .unable to read. In 
the following example, from the Catacomb of St. Priscilla, 
a dove was afterward added, to correct in part the mis- 
take of the ignorant fossor. Probably the epitaph may 

* The distinctions of case gradually disappear, the accusative and 
genitive are often used indiscriminately, and the former is frequently 
substituted for the ablative, as in the following phrases, cum uxorem, 
cum fratrem, sine aliquam, pro caritatem, decessit de secuhtm, etc. 
The transition into Italian is indicated by the prefixing the letter i, 
as in the words ispii itus, iscribet ; by affixing e, as posuete for posuit, 
and by the general softening of the pronunciation, as sanla for sanc- 
ta, meses for menses, and sesies for sexies. The names Stefano and 
Filipo have also a very modern appearance. 

The misplacing of the aspirate is seen to be by no means a cock- 
ney peculiarity, as in the following examples : — Hossa, hordine, Hosi- 
ris, heleph'antus, post hobitum, Hoctobris, heterna, etc. In the follow- 
ing the h is omitted : Onorius, ora, omo, ilaris, ospitium, onestus, 
oc, and ic. The permutation of the letters t and d, and v and b, is 
also common, as adque for atque, and bibit for vivit. We also find 
such forms as vicxit, visit, bissit, or visse, for vixit ; michi for mi Ai • 
pake or pache for pace; opsequia for obsequia ; quisquenti for quies- 
centi j depossio for depositio ; vocitus for vocatus ; pulla for puella ; 
omniorum for omnium ; restutus for restitutes ; pride for pridie ; 
que or qae for qua, and the like. Many of these peculiarities, how- 
ever, are common to later pagan as well as to Christian inscriptions. 



404 The Catacombs of Rome. 

have been scratched on the stone by the dim light 
struggling through a luminare, but when brought to the 
grave it was too dark to see which side was uppermost. 



BlOTOBlD^^g^ 



Fig. 125— Inscription upside down. 

In one example in the Lapidarian Gallery, repre- 
sented in Fig. 126, the inscription is actually written 
backwards, like Hebrew text. Probably, as Maitland 
suggests, the stonecutter took the impression on marble 
from a written copy, and was too ignorant to perceive 
that it was, of course, reversed. 

UTIXN1VPA1TW^HIVA!13 

,21HpWMV0ll2\2JMT3 

AOClVHHATlXIWVp 

Fig. 126.— Reversed Inscription. 

Read : Elia Vincentia. qui vixit an . . . et mesis II, cum Virgin- 
is que vxit annu diem. 

Elia Vincentia, who lived . . . years and two months, and lived 
with Virginius a year and a day. 

Most of the early epitaphs are of touching brevity 
and simplicity. Frequently only a single word, the 
name given in baptism, is recorded on the tomb, as in 
Fig. 127, which exhibits also the Christian symbols of 
the monogram, cross, and palm. 




Character of the Inscriptions. 405 



T 



CAJtfTA ^ 



Fig. 127.—" Cassta." (sic.) 



In Fig. 128 the names of three individuals appear on 
the same slab, which is recognizable as Christian Only 
by the symbol of the Good Shepherd : 




smmm ^kflivy^DK 



Fig. 128— " Septiniina, Aurelius, Galymedes." 

Frequently the phrase in pace, or dormit in pace, 
is added, in attestation of the Christian faith of the de- 
ceased, (see Figs. 122-124;) or, more briefly still, the 
word locvs is prefixed, as locvs primi — " The place of 
Primus,"* as if descriptive of the last long home, the 
house appointed for all living. 

The later inscriptions are frequently far removed 
from this naive simplicity, being inflated in style and 
elaborate in execution, attesting the increased wealth 
and growing pride of the Christian community. Of 
these we shall hereafter have frequent examples. One 
very remarkable series is that executed, under the direc- 
* See Fig. 45. 



4-06 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tion of Pope Damasus, in the latter part of the fourth 
century. He composed numerous metrical epitaphs in 
honour of the martyrs, which were engraved in marble 
in a singularly elegant decorated character, designed by 
his secretary, Furius Dionysius Filocalus, who was alsc 
an accomplished artist. Hence the letters of these 
Damasine inscriptions are as distinct a characteristic 
in early Christian epigraphy as the celebrated Aldine 
type in the bibliography of the revival of learning. 
There are few of the Catacombs where these inscrip- 
tions have not been found ; and De Rossi has been 
enabled thereby to reconstruct some valuable historical 
monuments from a few fragments, just as a skilful 
anatomist will reconstruct a skeleton from a portion of 
the vertebrae. Some of the most important of these have 
already been given ; others will hereafter occur. The 
Latinity is often of a school-boy mediocrity ; but they 
are of great value as determining the identity and eluci- 
dating the history of many important Christian tombs. 

Most of the epitaphs, as we might naturally ex- 
pect, were written in Latin. Nevertheless, a consider- 
able proportion are in Greek, to which circumstance 
several causes conduced. Although Latin was the lan- 
guage of the mass of the Roman population, yet Greek 
was also spoken largely by the educated classes. We 
know, too, from the pages of Juvenal* and contemporary 
writers, that Rome swarmed with numbers of slaves and 
others from Greece and Asia Minor, who, although they 
might be able to speak Latin, would find it very diffi- 
cult to write it. Moreover, Greek seems to have been 
in the early centuries a sort of ecclesiastical language 
at Rome, just as Latin is now throughout Roman Cath- 

* See his " Groeculus esuriens," (Saf., iii, 78,) and the expression, 
"In Tiberem defluxit Orontes." — Ib. t 62. 



Character of the Inscriptions. 407 

ohc Christendom. It was in this language that the glad 
tidings of the new evangel were first declared, and in it 
St. Paul wrote his epistle to the Roman church. The 
new wine of the gospel flowed from that classic chalice 
which so long had poured libations to the gods. Prob- 
ably a religious sentiment led to the adoption, even by 
those to whom it was unfamiliar, of the language in which 
their holiest teachings and highest hopes had been 
originally conveyed, and in which the Apostolic Fathers 
and the greatest apologists, theologians, and historians 
of the early church had fought the battles of the faith. 
The responses of the Roman liturgy long continued. to 
be uttered in this tongue, and traces of this practice 
still remain in the Kyrie, eleeson I Christe, eleeson ! of the 
Order of the Mass. This primitive Greek influence 
has also left its indelible impression on our language in 
such words as church, bishop, presbyter, eucharist, bap- 
tism, catechism, liturgy, psalm, and hymn. 

Sometimes the humble mourner had to be content 
with recording the Latin words in Greek characters, 
as in the following examples : AEIBEPE MAS1MIAAE 
KOlOYrE AMANTICCIMAE <$>IKIT EN IIAKE. Read : Libera 
Maximiila conjugi amantissimce, vixit in pace — "To 
Libera Maximilla, a most loving wife. She lived in 
peace." BENE MEPENTI $IAIE 0EOAQPE KYE BI2IT 
MHCIC Xt AIES XVIII. Read : Bene merenti fitice Theo- 
dora, qui vixit menses XI, dies XVIII — " To our well- 
deserving daughter Theodora, who lived eleven months 
and eighteen days."* 

In copying Latin inscriptions many errors arose from 

* Sometimes the two languages are strangely blended in the same 
epitaph ; and occasionally we find a Greek inscription in Latin char- 
acters, as in the following : prima irene soi. Read : Tlpifia 
upfjvrj col — " Prima, peace to thee." 



408 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the mason mistaking the Roman characters for similar 
Greek ones, as A for A, T for T, and the Latin H and P 
for the Greek Eta and Rho. The Greek influence is also 
seen in the altered inflexion of Latin words, as maritous 
for maritos, filies for filias, and the like. The proportion 
of Greek inscriptions among those before the time of 
Constantine is estimated at one eighth.* After that 
period it is less, indicating the gradual decline of Greek 
influence. In Gaul and the western provinces the pro- 
portion is not so great. At Autun there is only one 
Greek epitaph. 

Of the eleven thousand extant inscriptions only thir- 
teen hundred and seventy-four bear dates. The 
period of the others can be only approximately de- 
termined by a comparison with those whose ages are 
known ; by a careful examination of the execution, lan- 
guage, and general sentiment, those of earlier date be- 
ing less florid and more classical in style ; by the pres- 
ence or absence of certain symbols, as the sacred mon- 
ogram, of which no example is known before the period 
of Constantine ; and by the position in the Catacombs, 
those in the lower piani being of later date. 

Judging by these criteria, De Rossi has arrived at 
the following conclusions : About six thousand of the 
epitaphs belong to the first four centuries, and are 
from the Catacombs ; the rest were found above ground. 
Of these six thousand, about four thousand are before 
the year 324 A. D., when Constantine became sole em- 
peror. 

Only one of the dated inscriptions belongs to the first 
century, (A. D. 71,) two are of the second, (A. D. 107 and 

* In the dated inscriptions the proportion is less, as the Latin- 
speaking Christians would be the more likely to employ the consular 
dates as indications of time. 



Character of the Inso iptions. 409 

in,) and twenty-three of the third; the fourth century 
is represented by over five hundred ; the fifth by nearly 
as many ; the sixth by about three hundred, principally 
in its earlier half: and the seventh by only seven. 

Of these dated inscriptions, all before the year 313 
A. D., when the edict of Milan gave peace to the church, 
are from the Catacombs. After that event subterranean 
sepulture rapidly decreased. Of the epitaphs bear- 
ing dates between the years 313 A. D. and 337 A. U., 
two thirds are from the Catacombs, and one third from 
the basilicas and other places of burial above ground. 
From A. D. 337 to the time of Julian the proportion of 
each was about equal. Of the dated inscriptions of 
the last quarter of this century, about one fourth are 
subterranean. Of those between the years A. D. 400 
and A. D. 410, not one in ten is from the Catacombs, 
and after that period not one subterranean example 
occurs.* Sometimes, in epitaphs of late date, the name 
of the church and the position of the tomb are men- 
tioned, as in the following : depositvs in basilica 

SANCTORVM NASARI ET NABORIS SECVNDV ARCV IVXTA 

fenestra, (A. D. 404,) — " Buried in the basilica of Sts. 
Nasarius and Nabor, in the second arch near the win- 
dow ; " DEPOSITA IN CONTRA COLONNA VII, (A. D. 452,) 

— "Buried in the space opposite the seventh column." 
The Christian era was not adopted as a note of time 
till after the sixth century. The dates of the Roman 
inscriptions were therefore indicated by the names of 
Ihe consuls for the year, generally written in an abbre- 

* Of the four hundred Gaulish inscriptions in Le Blant few bear 
dates, and of these none are earlier than the time of Constantine. 
The first is of the year A. D. 334 ; the next, at Autun, of the year 
A. D. 374. They are also more artificial and rhetorical in style than 
those of Rome. 



4io The Catacombs of Rome. 

viated form.* Frequently the addition VC, for Vir 
Clarissimus — " An illustrious man " — or, in the case of 
imperial consuls, DN., for Dominus Noster — " Our Lord " 
— also occurs. f In one instance the epithet divvs — " Di- 
vine " — assumed by the emperors, is employed in a Chris- 
tian epitaph, in unthinking imitation of a heathen formula. 

This mode of indicating dates, to which the name 
hypatic (from vnarog, consul) has been applied, con- 
tinued in vogue till the latter part of the sixth century, 
and is the last recognition of that venerable institution, 
the Roman consulate. The year of the emperor, which 
was enjoined by Justinian, A. D. 537, for the dating of 
all public acts, appears after that time. 

Towards the close of the fourth century the date is 
sometimes indicated by the name of the presiding bishop 
of the church at Rome, as svb liberio episcopo, svb 

DAMASO EPISCOPO, Or TEMPORIBVS SANCTI INNOCENTII, 

the last expression used probably after the death of the 
pope named. The names of the bishops of other dio- 
ceses than that of Rome are also used, an indication of 
the parity of episcopal rank in the primitive ages. Thus 
we have in the year A. D. 397 the name pascasio epis- 
copo, according to De Rossi, probably the bishop of an 
ancient diocese in the immediate vicinity of the city. 
In the sixth century the names of certain priests, and 
even deacons, were used as local marks of time. 

In a large number of inscriptions the day of the 
month is mentioned, although the year is not. Cardinal 

* For example • POL • II • ET • APR • II • COS, which, expanded, reads 
thus : Pollione iteru/n et Apro iterum Consulibus, that is, 1 76 A. D. 
L • FAB • CIL • M • ANN • LIB • COS— Lucio Fabio Cilone, Marco 
Annio Libone Consulibus, that is, 204 A. D. To save space we have 
generally omitted the names of the consuls, giving merely the date. 
•{•Sometimes we have the forms VVCC, Viri Claris simi ; DD 
NN., Domini Nostri ; and AVGG., or AAVVGG., Augusti. 



Character- of the Inscriptions. 4 1 1 

Wiseman attributes this to the custom of commemorating 
the anniversary of the death of the departed as that of 
his birth into a higher life.* But a similar usage is ob- 
served also in pagan epitaphs ; and Dr. McCaul has 
well remarked! that it is the day of burial that is men- 
tioned more frequently than that of death. The date 
of birth is seldom given, J but the length of life is almost 
invariably indicated, frequently with great minuteness. 
Not only are the number of years, months, and days 
mentioned, but often, with lov-ing exactness, the hours, 
half-hours, and even the " scruples " or twenty-fourths 
of an hour, as in the following example : bene me- 

RENTI IN PACE SILVANA QVAE HIC DORMIT VIXIT ANN. 
XXI. MENS. III. HOR. IV. SCRVPLOS VI. — " To the well- 
deserving Silvana, who sleeps here in peace. She lived 
twenty-one years, three months, four hours, and six 
scruples." Six scruples are a quarter of an hour. 

When the exact number of years was unknown, the ex- 
pressions PLVS MINVS, IIAEON EAATTON— "more or less " 
— were used.|| Frequently the duration of married life 

* Fabiola, p. 146. 

f Christian Epitaphs, Introd., p. xxii, note f . We are indebted to 
this masterly prolegomena for several of the illustrations cited. 

% In one example it is minutely indicated thus : Ora noctis- IIII. 
• • • VIII Idus Madias die Saturnis luna vigesima Signo Apiorno, — 
" In the fourth hour of the night, the eighth day before the Ides of 
May, the twentieth day of the Moon, in the sign of Capricorn." 
De Rossi regards this as an astrological horoscope — a relic of heathen 
superstition. 

I The greatest age we have observed in Christian epitaphs is nine- 
ty-one years. See Fig. 19. The youngest is three months — Mens. 
III. We have noticed in Muratori (p. 382, No. 5) the following re- 
markable instance of longevity : M. Flavins Secundus filius fecit 
Flavio Secnndo patri q. vixit ann. CXII, et Flavice Urbance matri 
pice vixit ann. CV. — " M. Flavius Secundus, the son, made this to Fla- 
vius Secundus, his father, who lived one hundred and twelve years, 
and to his pious mother, (who) lived one hundred and five years.' 



412 The Catacombs of Rome. 

is also mentioned with extreme definiteness, as in the 
following:* silvana niciati marito bene merenti 

CVM QVO VIXIT ANNIS TRIBVS MANSIBVS DVABVS HORIS 

undecim, — " Silvana to her well-deserving husband 
Niciatis, with whom she lived three years, two months, 
eleven hours. 

The day of the month is generally indicated in the 
ordinary way with reference to the divisions of Calends, 
Nones, and Ides.f The days of the week are men- 
tioned by their usual classical names, as Dies So/is, 
Sunday ; Dies Lunce, Monday ; Dies Martis, Tuesday ; 
Dies Mercurii, Wednesday ; Dies Jovis, Thursday; Dies 
Veneris, Friday ; and Dies Saturni, Saturday. Some- 
times, however, the first and last days of the week are in- 
dicated by the Christian designations Dies Dominica, the 
day of the Lord, and Dies Sabbati, the day of rest. 

The Christian inscriptions also habitually ignore all 
mention of the birth-place or country of the deceased, 
as if in recognition that the Christian's true country is 
beyond the grave. J As if, also, in obedience to the in- 
junction to forsake father and mother in order to follow 
after Christ, details of family or descent, which are so 

Kenrick quotes an epitaph of a child of three and his mother 
(mammuta) of eighty ; and another of a man of one hundred and 
two years, ninety of which were passed without disease. The aver- 
age duration of life, according to Ulpian, was thirty years. 

* The relationship is generally expressed by such phrases as vixit 
mecum, duravit mecum, vixit in conjugio, fecit mectim, fecit cum 
compare. McCaul, Christ. Epitaphs, Introd. xv. 

f lb., xxvii. 

% Of 5,000 epitaphs in Squier's Index, only forty-five mention the 
country of the deceased. See one example, page 401, second foot- 
note, and also the following, of date A. D. 388 : Rapetiga, medicus, 
civis Hispanus, qui vixit in pace annos plus minus XXV, — " Rape- 
tiga, a physician, a citizen of Spain, who lived in peace twenty-five 
years, more or less." 



Character of the Inscriptions. 413 

conspicuous in some heathen inscriptions, almost never 
occur. 

Mr. Burgon has briefly expressed the principal points 
of contrast between modern epitaphs and those of the 
early Christians, as follows : " They never mention the 
date of birth,* we seldom omit it. They constantly 
record the day of burial, we never. They seldom men- 
tion the year of death, we never omit it. We never 
allude to burial, they always. They frequently record 
the years of married life, we never. In theirs the sur- 
vivors appear prominently, even by name, and are some- 
times mentioned exclusively. With us the dead are 
always named, the living seldom." f 

There are among these inscriptions several examples 
of opisthographtz, as they are called,^ that is, Christian 
epitaphs written on slabs that had originally borne one 
of pagan character, The latter are generally defaced or 
obliterated, filled with cement or turned to the wall, or 
placed upside down or sideways, so as to indicate their 
rejection by the Christian artist. Sometimes, however, 
they are still legible, but they have manifestly no con- 
nection with Christian sepulture whatever. Some are not 
funeral epitaphs at all, and some which are commemo- 
rate an entire family, though affixed to a single Christian 
grave. The appropriation of heathen monuments for 
the reception of Christian inscriptions will appear less 
strange when we reflect that the very temples of the 
gods have been the quarries from which many of the 
churches and palaces of later times were built. 

Sometimes, as in the example given in Fig. 59, the 
heathen formula of consecration to the " Divine Spirits " 

* This is not quite correct. 

\ Letters from Rome, pp. 202, 203. 

\ From oirioQioc and ypufyu, to write again* 



4 1 4 The Catacombs of Rome. 

— D. M., for Dis Manibus — is obliterated, and the sacred 
monogram gives the slab a Christian character. Occa- 
sionally, however, these letters appear in manifestly Chris- 
tian inscriptions, in which case Fabretti and others have 
maintained that they were capable of the interpretation 
Deo Magno or Deo Maximo — "To the Supreme God." 
With still less probability M. Rochette renders them 
Divis Martyribus — " To the divine martyrs," for which 
expression no countenance is to be found in the entire 
range of the Catacombs. Both interpretations are en- 
entirely gratuitous suppositions, for which Christian 
epigraphy furnishes absolutely no warrant. It is 
more probable that they were careless or conventional 
imitations of a common heathen formula, which was 
occasionally adopted by the Christians without thought, 
or perhaps in ignorance of its meaning, just as they also 
imitated the winged genii and other classic accessories 
of pagan art in the ornamentation of the Catacombs. 
Dr. McCaul has suggested that the Roman mortuary 
sculptors probably kept sepulchral slabs on sale, as is 
often done now, with the common formulas already en- 
graved, which were purchased without regard to their ap- 
propriateness, and that in filling up the inscription the 
Christians sometimes neglected to obliterate the letters 
of pagan significance. Possibly, also, some lingering 
remnants of heathen superstition may sometimes be in- 
dicated by their use. 

The letters BM., which frequently occur in these 
inscriptions, have been erroneously interpreted as stand- 
ing for Beatus or Beata Martyr, for which there is no 
authority whatever. They unquestionably indicate the 
ever-recurring phrase, both in pagan and Christian 
epigraphy, Bene Merenti — "To the well-deserving." or 
Bonce Memoriae — "Of happy memory." 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 415 



CHAPTER II. 

THE DOCTRINAL TEACHINGS OF THE CATACOMBS. 

1 What insight into the familiar feelings and thoughts 
of the primitive ages of the church," remarks the learned 
and eloquent Dean Stanley,* " can be compared with 
that afforded by the Roman Catacombs ! Hardly no- 
ticed by Gibbon or Mosheim, they yet give us a likeness 
of those early times beyond that derived from any of 
the written authorities on which Gibbon and Mosheim 
repose. . . . The subjects of the painting and sculpture 
place before us the exact ideas with which the first 
Christians were familiar ; they remind us, by what they 
do not contain, of the ideas with which the first Chris- 
tians were not familiar. . . . Fie who is thoroughly 
steeped in the imagery of the Catacombs will be nearer 
to the thought of the early church than he who has 
learned by heart the most elaborate treatise even of 
Tertullian or of Origen." 

By the study of the inscriptions, paintings, and sculp- 
ture of this subterranean city of the dead, we may fol- 
low the development of Christian thought from century 
to century; we may trace the successive changes of doc- 
trine and discipline ; we may read the irrefragable tes- 
timony, written with a pen of iron in the rock forever, 
of the purity of the primitive faith, and of the gradual 
corruption which it has undergone. 

In this era of critical investigation of the very founda 
tions of the faith it will be well to examine this vast body 

* Eastern Churches. 



4^6 The Catacombs of Rome. 

of Christian evidences as to the doctrinal teachings of 
the primitive times, which has been handed down from 
the believers living in or near the apostolic age, and 
thus providentially preserved in these subterranean 
excavations, as a perpetual memorial of the faith and 
practice of the golden prime of Christianity. 

While we should not expect to find in these inscrip- 
tions a complete system of theology, we would certainly 
look for some definite expression regarding the religious 
belief of those who wrote these memorials of the dead. 
We would expect some reference to the lives of the 
departed, to the virtues of their character, and to the 
hopes of the survivors as to their future condition in 
the spirit-world. In this expectation we are not disap- 
pointed. We find in these epitaphs a body of evi- 
dence on the doctrines and discipline of the primitive 
church, whose value it is scarcely possible to over- 
estimate. We are struck with the infinite contrast of 
their sentiment to that of the pagan sepulchral mon- 
uments, and also by the conspicuous absence, in those 
of the early centuries and purer period of Christianity, 
of the doctrines by which the church of Rome is char- 
acterized. We shall also find references to some of the 
heresies, which, like plague spots, alas ! so soon began 
to infect the church,* and some of which even found 
distinguished ecclesiastical patronage. f 

The Church of Rome lays especial claim to thetiadi- 
tions of the early ages and the antiquities of the Cat- 
acombs as proofs of the apostolic character of her 

* Tertullian says they destroy the soul as fevers do the body. — De 
Prcescrip. Hcereticoritm, c. 2. 

f The Gnostic Marcion sought admission to the Roman presbytery 
and Valentine even aspired to the episcopal chair. " Speraverat epis 
copatum Valentinus." — Tertull., Adv. Valent., c. iv. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 4 1 7 

peculiar dogmas and usages. But these ancient records 
are a palimpsest which she has written all over with her 
own glosses and interpretations; and when the ordtal 
of modern criticism revives the real documents and re- 
moves the accumulation of error, the testimony of the 
past is strikingly opposed to the pretensions of the Ro- 
man See and the teachings of Romish doctrine. The 
distinguished scholarship, laborious research, and ar- 
chaeological skill of such eminent authorities as De 
Rossi, Pitra, Garrucci, and other Roman savants, only 
furnish the weapons for the refutation of many of Rome's 
most cherished beliefs. There are those, indeed, who 
carry to these investigations the faculty of seeing what 
they wish to see, and what no others can perceive. It not 
unfrequently happens, also, that extreme credulity and 
superstition are found united with great learning and high 
scientific attainments. The effect, however, of the honest 
examination of this testimony by a candid mind is seen 
in the case of Mr. Hemans, the learned author of " An- 
cient Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy." This gen- 
tleman, although a pervert from the Anglican communion 
to that of Rome, and in strong sympathy with many of its 
institutions, as is apparent from his interesting volume, 
felt compelled by the historical and monumental testi- 
mony of the Catacombs, and of early Christian art and 
literature, to retrace his steps, and, however reluctantly 
to condemn and abandon the faith he had espoused. 

Protestantism, therefore, has nothing to fear from the 
closest investigation of these evidences of primitive 
Christianity. They offer no warrant whatever for the 
characteristic doctrines and practice of the modern 
Church of Rome. There is not a single inscription, nor 
painting, nor sculpture, before the middle of the fourth 
century, that lends the least countenance to her arrogant 
27 



41 8 The Catacombs of Rome. 

assumptions and erroneous dogmas. All previous to this 
date are remarkable for their evangelical character ; and 
it is only after that period that the distinctive peculiarities 
of Romanism begin to appear. The wholesome breatn 
of persecution and the " sweet uses of adversity " in the 
early ages tended to preserve the moral purity of the 
church ; but the enervating influence of imperial favour 
and the influx of wealth and luxury, led to corruptions 
of practice and errors of doctrine. Her trappings of 
worldly pomp and power were a Nessus garment which 
empoisoned her spiritual life. Hence the Catacombs, 
the rude cradle of the early faith, became also the 
grave of much of its simplicity and purity. 

In the investigation of early Christian epigraphy, 
therefore, the determination of dates is of the utmost 
importance, as it is only inscriptions of the earlier and 
acknowledged purer period of the church which can 
bear authoritative testimony as to primitive doctrine. 
We shall, therefore, first examine in chronological order 
all those bearing dates earlier than the fourth century 
which have any doctrinal significance, and then glean 
the evidence of later examples as to the antiquity of 
Romanist teachings. We will take the inscriptions as 
given in his great work,* by De Rossi, the most eminent 
authority on this subject; but while accepting his facts, 
and acknowledging his candour and honesty of research, 
which qualities we will seek to imitate, we cannot in all 
cases accept his conclusions. 

The first dated inscription possessing any doctrinal 
character occurs in the year 217.! It is taken from a 
large sarcophagus found in the Via Labicana, and is of 

* Inscriptiones Christiana Urbis Roma Septimo Saculo Aniiquiores. 
\ The earlier inscriptions express merely the consular dates, and :n 
fine instance only, the name and age of the deceased. € 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 419 

great interest as indicating the lofty social position and 
honourable offices of the deceased as a member of the 
imperial household, as well as the devout confidence of 
his pious freedmen in his Spiritual beatification. The 
upper portion of the following inscription, that in larger 
type, is engraved on the front of the sarcophagus, and 
that in smaller characters on the back. The use of a 
sarcophagus is an indication of the wealth of the 
deceased. 

M-AVRELIO-AVGG-LIB:PROSENETI 

A CVBICVLO-AVG- 
PROC'THESAVRORVM 
PROC'PATRIMONI- P R O C • 
MVNERVM- PROC-VINORVM 
ORDINATOADIVO COMMODO 
IN KASTRENSE PATRONO PIISSIMO 
LIBERT I • B ENEMERENTI 
SARCOPHAGVM DE S V O • 

ADORNAVERVNT- 



PROSENES RECEPTVS ADDEVM • V • NON SSA NIA 

[PRAESENTE • ET • EXTRICATO • II 
REGREDIENS IN VRBE AB EXPEDITI ONIBVS SCRIPSIT AM 

[PELIVS LIB. 

— fhscrip. Christ., No. 5. 

To Marcus Aurelius Prosenes, freedman of the two Augusti, of the 
bed-chamber of Augustus, Procurator of the Treasures, Procurator 
of the Patrimony, Procurator of the Presents, Procurator of the 
Wines, appointed by the deified Commodus to duty in the camp, a 
most afiectionate Patron. For him, well-deserving, his freedmen pro- 
vided (this) sarcophagus at their own cost. 

Prosenes received to God, on the fifth day before the Nones 
of— Prsesens and Extricatus (being consuls) for the second time. 

Ampelius his freedman, returning to the city from the wars, wrote 
(this inscription.) 



420 The Catacombs of Rome. 

We have here the earliest indication of doctrinal be- 
lief as to the condition of the departed. It is not, how- 
ever, a dark and gloomy apprehension of purgatorial 
fires, but, on the contrary, the joyous confidence of im- 
mediate reception into the presence of God.* The 
retention of the pagan title of the emperor, " the dei- 
fied Commodus," is an anomalous feature in a Christian 
monument, although doubtless it is merely the unthink- 
ing imitation of a common epigraphic formula. 

Accompanying an inscription of date A. D. 234, is 
the first example of the symbols, afterward so common, 
the fish and the anchor, but no other distinctively Chris- 
tian feature. In the next year, A. D. 235, occurs the fol- 
lowing epitaph, in which there is possibly an intimation 
of immortality in the expression de sceculo recessit — " re- 
tired from the world," or "from the age."f avrelia 

DVLCISSIMA FILIA QVAE DE SAECVLO RECESSIT VIXIT 
ANN • XV • M • IIII • SEVERO ET QVINTIN COSS, — " Aure- 

lia, our very sweet daughter, who retired from the world, 
Severus and Quintinus being consuls. She lived fifteen 
years and four months." The epithet "very sweet 
daughter " is peculiarly appropriate to the Christian 
character, although common also on pagan tombs. 

In the year A. D. 238, on a sarcophagus which bears 
the first dated representation of the Good Shepherd, 
we find the following touching inscription. It conveys 
nothing doctrinal beyond the phrase "most devout," or 
" God-loving," expressive of the youthful piety of the 

* Dr. McCaul remarks the occurrence of a similar expression in 
a pagan inscription given by Muratori, (978, 979,) as follows : D. M. in 
hoc tumulo jacet corpus exanimis (sic) cujus spirit us inter deos re- 
ceptus est ; sic enim meruit, — " In this tomb lies a lifeless body whose 
spirit is received among the gods, for so it deserved." 

f The use of recedo in the sense of " to die " is classical ; but in 
the above form it is unknown in pagan epigraphy. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 421 

deceased. hpakaitoc o geo^iaectatoc ezhcen 

ET(t?)H IIAPA H(ixipag) IT ENOCHCEN HM(e)P(aj) IB ... . 
BAN9IAC nATHP TEKNft TATKYTEPQ 4-QTOC KA1 ZS2HC 
— " The very devout Heraclitus lived eight years and 
thirteen days. He was ill twelve days . . . Xanthias 
his father, to his son, sweeter than light and life." 
The mention of the duration of the illness is very 
rare in these epitaphs. The yearning affection of the 
bereaved father is beautifully expressed in the last 
clause. 

The next example merely gives the consular date, 
A. D. 249, and the assurance that the deceased sleeps, 
dormit — a distinctively Christian synonym for death. 
In the year A. D. 268 occurs a fragment on which one 
may with difficulty decipher the inscription by the pa- 
rents " to their well-deserving son, who lived twelve 
years and eleven months." The chief interest attaches 
to the last line : Vibas inter Sanctis (sic) iha — " May 
you live among the holy ones." 

The meaning of the last three letters is unknown. 
They have been interpreted as standing for in pace or 
et have ; but the last rarely, if ever, occurs in Christian 
epigraphy. Dr. McCaul ingeniously conjectures that 
the last word is intended for sanctissimas, or " most holy 
ones," the h being an ill cut m. This natural ejaculation 
of the sorrowing friends, of which we shall find occasional 
examples, is certainly no indication of the later Romish 
practice of prayers for the dead, or of the intercession of 
the saints. On this slab are also the first known exam- 
ples of the dove, olive branch, and vase. 

The next dated inscription, of the year 269, A. D., is 
of a very barbarous character — Latin words in Greek 
letters, not engraved, but merely painted on the slab. 
It is evidently, as is indicated by its wretched grammar 



422 The Catacombs of Rome. 

and orthography, the production of extreme ignorance. 
It requires a strong dogmatic prepossession to detect in 
its incoherent language any meaning beyond the attes- 
tation of the sanctity of character of the deceased. 
After giving the date, it reads thus : AETKEC • 4>IAEIE 
CEBHPE . KAPECCEME . IIOCOYETE . EA . EICIIEIPEITS2 . 
CANKTQ • TOYQ . Read, Leuces filice Severcz carissimce 
posuit et spiritui sancto tuo, — " Leuces erected this (me- 
morial) to her very dear daughter, and to thy (sic) 
holy spirit." 

Nothing further of a doctrinal character occurs till 
the year 291, when we find the following barbarous ex- 
ample. The grammar and spelling are atrocious, and 
the division of the words quite arbitrary : ex virgineo 

TVO BENE MECO VIXISTI LIB ENIC ONIVGA INNOCENTISSE 
MACERVONIA SILVANA REFRIGERA CVM SPIRITA SANCTA. 

Read, Ex virginio tuo bene me cum vixisti libens in conjuga 
innocentissi?na Macervonia Silvana. Kefrigera cum spir- 
itis Sanctis — " Macervonia Silvana, thou didst live well 
with me from thy maidenhood, rejoicing in most 
innocent wedlock. Refresh (thyself) among the holy 
spirits." 

No candid interpretation can discover in the closing 
acclamation any thing beyond the natural expression 
of a desire for the happiness of the departed among the 
sanctified. 

There is nothing, therefore, in any of the inscriptions 
of the first three centuries — the ages of the purity of the 
faith — which can in the least degree support the assump- 
tions of Roman controversialists as to the antiquity of 
Romish dogmas. Nor is there any indication of those 
dogmas till the latter part of the fourth century, as will 
be evident from a brief examination of the principal 
inscriptions having any reference to doctrine before 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 423 

that period. In the year A. D. 302 we find the follow- 
ing beautiful tribute of conjugal and filial affection, 
which only, however, attests the high Christian char- 
acter of the deceased : domino patri piissimo ac dvl- 

CISSIMO SECVNDO VXOR ET FILII PRO PIETATE POSVE- 

I. vnt — " To the highly venerable, most devout, and very 
sweet father, Secundus. His wife and sons in expres- 
sion of their dutifulness have placed this slab." 

In the year A. D. 310, in the epitaph of a youth 
twenty-two years of age, we find the beautiful euphe- 
mism for death, accersitvs ab angelis — " Called away 
(literally, sent for) by angels." There is no doctrine of 
purgatory here. The Christian soul, like Lazarus, is 
borne by angels to Abraham's bosom, and not, like Dives, 
to tormenting flames, albeit called of purgatorial efficacy 
to supplement the work of Christ. In A. D. 329 oc- 
curs the still nobler expression, natvs est lavrentivs 
in eternvm ann xx • dormit in pace — " Laurentius 
was born into eternity in the twentieth year of his age. 
He sleeps in peace." 

Sometimes the word natus refers to the new birth of 
spiritual regeneration, and admission to the church by 
the rite of baptism. Thus, in an example of date A. D. 
338, a youth of twenty-four years of age is said to 
have been born and died in the same year, though at the 
interval of a few months. In A. D. 377 we find the 
expression coelesti renatvs aqva — " Born again of 
heavenly water." 

In the year A. D. 335 the chaste and modest charac- 
ter of a Christian matron is commended, without any 
suggestion of the Romish notion of the superior merit 
of virginity, as follows : 

B • M • CVBICVLVM • AVRELIAE • MARTINAE • CASTISSIMAE • ADQVE 
PVDICISSIMAE • FEMINAE • QVI • FECIT • IN • CONIVGIO -ANN • XXIII 



424 The Catacombs of Rome. 

D-xilil — " To one well-deserving. The sleeping-place of Aurelia 
Martina, a most chaste and modest woman, who passed in wedlock 
twenty-three years, fourteen days." 

The primitive Christians had no doubt of the immedi- 
ate happiness of those who died in the faith. They were 
incapable of the blasphemous thought that the atoning 
blood of Christ was insufficient to wash away their guilt 
and that therefore they were doomed to penal fires, 

Till the foul crimes done in their days of nature 
Were burned and purged away. 

All the expressions applied to the death of the right- 
eous indicate the assurance of their spirits' peace and 
happiness. Thus, in addition to the examples already 
given, we have, A. D. 339, bene qvesqventi {sic) in pace 
— " Resting well in peace ; " A. D. 339, in pace decessit, 
A. D. 349, and A. D. 360, ibit and exibit in pace — " De- 
parted in peace ; " A. D. 348, reqvievit — " Entered 
into rest ; " A. D. 353, pavsabit— " Will repose ; " A. D. 
355, qviescit — "He rests," not reqviescat — "May he 
rest," as the Romanists write, but the joyful assurance 
of present repose in the peace of Go<J; A. D. 359, 
ivit ad devm — " He went to God ; " A. D. ifiZi sem- 
per qviescis secvra — " Thou dost repose forever free 
from care ; " A. D. 368, qviencis (sic) in pace conivx 
incomparabilis — " Thou restest in peace, incomparable 
wife ; " A. D. 369, vocitvs (sic) iit in pace — " Called 
away, he went in peace ; " in A. D. 380, we find aeterna 
reqvies felicitatis — "Everlasting rest of happiness." 
The Christians, as is asserted in the following, sor- 
rowed not as those without hope: ivliae innocen- 

TISSIMAE ET DVLCISSIMAE, MATER SVA SPERANS " To 

the most sweet and innocent Julia, her mother hoping." 
The loved ones were " not lost, but gone before : " 
praecessit nos in pace — " He went before us in peace ;" 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 425 

TP0AnEA9QN TOY KA0 HMAC BlOY — " Having gone be- 
fore from our life." Sometimes the body seems to be 
regarded as the clog and fetter of the soul, binding it to 
earth, as in the following : absolvtvs de corpore — " Set 
free from the body ; " corporeos rvmpens nexvs gav- 
det in astris — " Breaking the bonds of the body, he re- 
joices in the stars," that is, in heaven. 

The entire inscriptions from which extracts are thus 
given may be found in De Rossi's Inscriptiones Chris- 
tiana, under the respective dates. 

The following, of date A. D. 381, rises to loftier poet- 
ical flights, though ignoring the metrical divisions, 
which are indicated in the copy by parallels : 

THEODORA QVAE VIXIT ANNOSXXI M. VII D. XXIII IN PACE. . . . AM- 
PLIFICAM SEQVITVR VITAM DVM CASTA AFRODITE || FECIT AD ASTRA 
VIAM CHRISTI MODO GAVDET IN AVLA || RESTITIT HAEC MVNDO 
SEMPER CAELESTIA QVAERENS || OPTIMA SERVATRIX LEGIS FIDEIQVE 
MAGISTRA || DEDIT EGREGIAM SANCTIS PER SECVLA MENTEM || INDE 
EXIMIOS PARADISI REGNAT ODORES | TEMPORE CONTINVO VERNANT 
VBI GRAMINA RIVIS || EXPECTATQVE DEVM SVPERAS QVO SVRGAT 
AD AVRAS I HOC POSVIT CORPVS TVMVLO MORTALIA LINQVENS || 
FVNDAVITQVE LOCVM CONIVNX EVACRIVS INSTANS. 

Theodora, who lived twenty-one years, seven months, twenty-three 
days. In peace. Whilst following an exalted life, a chaste Venus, 
she pursued her way to the stars. Now she rejoices in the court of 
Christ. She resisted the world, ever following heavenly things. A 
devout observer of the law, and mistress of honour, she applied an 
illustrious mind to holy things while here in this world. Hence she 
reigns (amid) the choice odours of paradise, where the herbage is for- 
ever green beside the streams of heaven,* and awaits God, in order 
that she may rise to the upper air. She laid her body in this tomb, 
forsaking mortal things, and Evacrius, her husband, built the monu- 
ment, superintending the work. 

The first inscription at all favourable to Romish doc- 
trine is the following barbarous example, (A. D. 380 :) 
* Compare Wesley — 

" There everlasting spring abides, 
And never-wilherino; flowers." 



426 The Catacombs of Rome. 

HI : QVIESCIT ANCILLA DEI OVEDE 
SVA OMNIA PEPENDIT DOMVM ISTA 
QVVM AMICI DEFLENT SOLACIVM Q. REQVIRVNT 
PRO HVNC VNVM ORA SVBOLEM QVEM SVPERIS 
TITEM REQVESTI ETERNA REQVIEM FELICITAS CAVSA MANEBIS. 
Read : Hie quiescit ancilla Dei qu<z de suis omnibus pepen.iil 
iomum istam, quam atniea deflent solaciumque requirutit. Pro ha 
una ora subole quam superstitem reliquisti. Etema requie felici- 
tatis causa manebis. 

Here rests a handmaid of God * who, of all her riches, possesses 
but this one house : whom her friends bewail, and seek for conso- 
lation. O pray for this thine only child whom thou hast left behind. 
Thou wilt remain in the eternal repose of happiness. 

The yearning cry of an orphaned heart for the prayers 
of a departed mother is, however, a slight foundation 
for the Romish practice of the invocation of the saints. 

Previous to this date we have found not the slightest 
indication of Romish doctrine ; and if those doctrines 
have been transmitted, as their advocates assert, from 
the very earliest ages, it is incredible that they should 
have left no trace in the dated inscriptions for nearly 
four centuries. After this time, it is true, we find 
occasional epitaphs which, rigidly interpreted accord- 
ing to the canons of theological criticism, contain 
sentiments unwarranted by Scripture ; but these may 
be the result of carelessness of expression, or of the 
corruptions of doctrine which had already taken place 
in the church. 

If then those inscriptions which apparently favour Ro- 
mish dogmas, of which we know the date, are all of a late 
period, we may assume that those of a similar character 
which are undated are of the same relative age, and 
therefore valueless as evidence of the antiquity of such 
dogmas. Dr. Northcote admits the fact, but objects to 
this conclusion as founded upon negative evidence ; 
* De Rossi thinks Ancilla Dei a proper name. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 427 

yet he himself adopts the same line of argument con- 
cerning the absence of military rank among the primi- 
tive Christians. But we are not left to negative evi- 
dence. We have the amplest testimony of a positive 
character, which we shall proceed to examine, showing 
that even in the fifth and sixth century the vast pro- 
portion of the inscriptions are of a highly evangelical 
character, a.nd are entirely antagonistic to the most 
cherished doctrines of the Church of Rome. 

The Christian's view of death is always, in striking 
contrast to the sullen resignation or blank despair of 
paganism, full of cheerfulness and hope. Its rugged 
front is veiled under softest synonyms. The grave was 
considered merely as the temporary re'sting place of the 
body, while the freed spirit was regarded as already 
rejoicing in the presence of God in a broader day, and 
brighter light, and fairer fields than those of earth. 
The following examples will illustrate the pious ortho- 
doxy of these early Christian epitaphs. 

ABUT ETHERIAM CVPIENS CAELI CONSCENDERE LVCEM. (A. D. 383.) 
She departed, desiring to ascend to the ethereal light of heaven. 

LIMINA MORTIS ADIIT 
EVTVCHIVS SAPIENS PIVS ADQ BENIGNVS 

IN CHRISTVM CREDENS PREMIA LVCIS ABET, (sic.) A. D. 393. 
Eutuchius, wise, pious, and kind, believing in Christ, entered the 
portals of death, (and) has the rewards of the light (of heaven). 

DVLCIS ET INNOCES (sic) HIC DORMIT SEVERIANVS SOMNO PACIS. '. . 
CVIVS SPIRITVS IN LVCE DOMINI SVSCEPTVS EST. (a. D. 393.) 
Here sleeps in the sleep of peace the sweet and innocent Severi- 
anus, whose spirit is received into the light of the Lord. 

HIC IACET VRBICA SVABIS (sic) SEMPERQ. PVDICA 
VIXIT VERBORVM VERA LOQVVTA (sic) IN SEMPITERNALE 
AEVVM QVIESCIT SECVRA. (A. D. 397.) 

Here lies Urbica, agreeable and ever modest. She lived a speakei 
of truth. She rests free from care throughout endless time. 



4 2 8 The Catacombs of Rome. 

NEC REOR HVNC LACRIMIS FAS SIT DEFLERE 
CORPORIS EXVTVS VINCLIS QVI GAVDET IN ASTRIS 
NEC MALA TERRENI SENTIT CONTAGIA SENSVS. (A. D. 399.) 
Nor do I think it right to lament with tears him, who, freed from 

the fetters of the body, rejoices among the stars, nor feels the evil 

contagion of earthly sense. 

PAVSABET (sic) PRAETIOSA ANNORVM 
PVLLA (sic) VIRGO XII. TANTVM ANCILLA DEI ET XPI. 
Pretiosa went to her rest, a maiden of only twelve years of age, 
a handmaid of God and of Christ. (A. D. 401.) 

NON TAMEN HAEC TRISTES HABITAT POST LIMINA SEDES 
PROXIMA SED CHRISTO SIDERA CELSA TENET. (A. D. 406.) 
Nevertheless she occupies not the doleful seats behind the thresh- 
old, but inhabits the lofty stars, next to Christ. 

HIC REQVIESCET (sic) IN SOMNO PACIS MALA. . . . 
ACCEPTA APVT (sic) DEVM. (A. D, 432.) 
Here rests in the sleep of peace Mala. . . Received into the presence 
of God. 

REDDITVR HAEC MERITIS QUAE SINE FINE MANET. 

This (life) without end which remains is bestowed for his pious 
desert. 

In the following epitaph of date A. D. 472, the de- 
parted^ represented as comforting the survivors with 
the thought of the felicity of the blest : 

LEVITAE C0NIVNX PETRONIA FORMA PVDORIS 

HIS MEA DEPONENS SEDIBVS OSSA LOCO 
PARCITE VOS LACRIMIS DVLCES CVM CONIVGE NATAE 

VIVENTEMQVE DEO CREDITE FLERE NEFAS. 

I, Petronia, the wife of a deacon, the type of modesty, lay down my 
bones in this resting place. Refrain from tears, my sweet daughters 
and husband, and believe that it is forbidden to weep for one who 
lives in God. 

The early Christians confessed that they were stran- 
gers and pilgrims in the earth, and that they desired a 
better country, even a heavenly. They felt that, in the 
language of Cyprian, the soul's true Fatherland is on 
high. This sentiment is expressed as follows, in an 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 429 

epitaph of date A. D. 493, migravit de hoc saecvlo — 
' He migrated from this world." Similar is the idea in 
the following : felix vita fvit felix et transitvs 
ipse — " Happy was the life, and happy also the death," lit- 
erally, " the transit ; " hic reqiescit . . qvae a deo inter 

EXORDIA VIVENDI DE HAC LVCE SVBLATA EST VT IN 
MELIORE LVMINE VIVERE MERERETVR — " Here rests . . . 

who was snatched away by God in the very beginning 
of life from the light of earth, that she might be worthy 
to live in the more glorious light (of heaven)." 

The following is a striking protest against the heathen 
notions of the future state. 

SI MENTIS VIRTVS LVCISQVE SERENIOR VSVS 
DEFVNCTO IN XPO REVENIT NON TARTARA SENTIT 
CYMERIOSQVE LACOS MERITIS POST FATA SVPERSTES 
FVNERIS ET LEGEM PERIMENS TERRAEQVE SEPVLCRIS 
ASTRA TENET NESCITQVE MORI SIC LVCE RELICTA. 

Since vigour of mind and more serene enjoyment of the light re- 
turn to the dead in Christ, she feels not (the pains of) Tartarus, nor 
the Cimmerian lakes, by her deserts surviving after death and de- 
stroying that law of the grave, (which is) imposed on the sepulchres 
of earth, she occupies the stars, and knows not death, having in this 
manner left the light. 

We find also such expressions as follow : depostvs {sic) 
in pace fidei catholice, {sic) — "Buried in the peace 
of the Catholic faith," A. D. 462 ; hic. req. in pace 
devs, {sic) — " Here rests in the peace of God," A. D. 
500; in pace ecclesiae — "In the peace of the church," 
A. D. 523; in pace et benedictione — "In peace and 
benediction ; " semper fidelis manebit apvd devm — 
"Ever faithful, he shall remain with God," {circ. 590); 
fatvm fecit — " She fulfilled her destiny ; " * reddidi 

* The following is the brief biography of some unknown saint at 
Naples : servvs dei . . . et ad vita (sic) perbenit (sic,) — " A 
servant of God . . . and attained unto life." 



430 The Catacombs of Rome. 

NVNC DIVO RERVM DEBIT VM COMMVNE OMNIBVS — "Ihave 

rendered now to the Lord of the universe the debt com- 
mon to all," A. D. 483 ; zoticvs hic ad dormiendvm — 
" Zoticus here laid to sleep ; " dormitio elpidis — " The 
sleeping place of Elpis ; " dormivit et reqviescit — 
" He has slept and is at rest ; " dormit sed vivit — " He 
sleeps but lives ; " qviescit in domino iesv — " He re- 
poses in the Lord Jesus ; " ivit ad devm — " He went to 
God ; " evocatvs a domino — " Called by God ; " accept a 
apvd devm — "Accepted with God ; " ETEAEIS20H — " He 
finished his life ; " EK01MH9H — " He fell asleep ; " dama- 
lis hic sic • v • d — " Here lies Damalis, for so God wills." 
Many of these undated inscriptions are full of Chris- 
tian thought, and breathe the strongest assurance of the 
happiness of the departed, as the following from the 
Lateran Museum : 

MACVS pver innocens 

ESSE IAM INTER INNOCENTES COEPISTI 

QVAM stavilis tibi haec vita est 

QVAM TE LAETVM EXCIPET MATER ECCLESIA 
MVNDO REVERTENTEM COMPREMATVR PECTORVM 
GEMITUS STRVATVR FLETVS OCVLORVM. 
Macus, innocent boy, thou hast already begun to be among the in- 
nocent. Unto thee how sure is thy present life. Thee how gladly 
thy mother, the church, (on high,) received returning from this world. 
Hushed be this bosom's groaning, dried be these weeping eyes.* 

Of similar character are also the following : salonice 
ispiritvs tvvs in bonis — " Salonice, thy spirit is among 
the good;" refrigeras spiritvs tvvs in bonis — "Thou 
refreshest thy spirit among the good; " riPQTOC EN ATI a 
ITNEYMATI 6E0T EN0AAE KE1TAI— " Here in the Holy 
Spirit of God lieth Protus ; " corpvs habet tellvs 
animam caelestia regna — " The earth has the body, 
celestial realms the soul;" TAYKEPON *AOC OY KATE- 
* Burgon. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 431 

iE¥A2 (sic) E2XE2 TAP META COY nANAGANATON— " TllOU 
didst not leave the sweet light, for thou hadst with thee 

Him who knows not death," literally, "the all-deathless 
one ; " agape vibis in eternvm — " Agape, thou livest for- 
ever ; " dormit et vivit in pace xo, (sic) — " He sleeps 
and lives in the peace of Christ; " mens nescia mortis 
VIVIT ET aspectv frvitvr bene conscia christi — 
"The soul lives unknowing of death, and consciously re- 
joices in the vision of Christ ; " prima vivis in gloria dei 
et in pace domini nostri xr. — " Prima, thou livest in 
the glory of God, and in the peace of Christ, Our Lord." * 
The glorious doctrine of the resurrection, which is 
peculiarly the characteristic of our holy religion as dis- 
tinguished from all the faiths of antiquity, was every- 
where recorded throughout the Catacombs. It was 
symbolized in the ever-recurring representations of the 
story of Jonah and of the raising of Lazarus, and was 
strongly asserted in numerous inscriptions. As the 
early Christians laid the remains of the departed 
saint in their last long rest, the sacred words of the 
Gospel, " I am the Resurrection and the Life," must 
have echoed with a strange power through the long cor- 
ridors of that silent city of the dead, and have filled 
the hearts of the believers, though surrounded by the 
evidences of their mortality, with an exultant thrill of 
triumph over death and the grave. This was a recom- 
pense for all their pains. Of this not even the malig- 
nant ingenuity of persecution could deprive them. Al- 
though the body were consumed and its ashes strewn 
upon the waters, or sown upon the wandering winds, 
still, still the Lord knoweth them that are his, and 

* Of the Antiochene Christians Chrysostom writes : " They say not 
of the departed 'he is dead,' but, 'he is perfected.'" — Horn, in 
Matt.. 68. 



43 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

keeps the dust of his chosen. Tertullian ridicules the 
heathen for believing the doctrine of metempsychosis 
and rejecting that of the resurrection.* " God forbid 
that he should abandon to everlasting destruction," he 
exclaims, " the labour of his hands, the care of his own 
thoughts, the receptacle of his own Spirit ! " f 

The hope of the resurrection is often strongly ex- 
pressed, as in the following examples : 

HIC REQVIESCIT CARO MEA NOVISSIMO VERO DIE 
PER XPM CREDO RESVSCITABITVR A MORTVIS. (a. D. 544.) 
Here rests my flesh ; but at the last day, through Christ, I believe it 
will be raised from the dead. 

RELICTIS TVIS IACES IN PACE SOPORE 

MERITA RESVRGES TEMPORALIS TIBI DATA REQVIETIO. 

You, well- deserving one, having left your (relations), lie asleep in 
peace — you will arise — a temporary rest is granted you. 

In an epitaph of the year 449 we read, recepta 

CAELO MERVIT OCCVRRERE XPO AD RESVRRECTIONEM 

praemivm aeternvm svscipere digna — " Received 
into heaven, she deserved to meet Christ at the resur- 
rection, worthy to receive an everlasting reward." In the 
following example from the Catacomb of Naples, Chris- 
tian confidence adopts the sublime language of Job : 

CREDO QVIA REDEMPTOR MEVS BIBIT (sic) ET NO BISSI MQ DIE 
DE TERRA SVSCITABIT ME IN CARNE MEA VIDEBO DOM. 
I believe, because that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day 
shall raise me from the earth, that in my flesh I shall see the Lord. 

More briefly is this cardinal doctrine asserted in the 
following : ivstvs cvm scis xpo mediante resvrget 
— " Justus, who will arise with the saints through Christ." 

* Apol., c. 48. 

\ De Resur. Cam., c. 9. He mentions the long duration of the 
hones and teeth, and quotes the story of the phoenix as an argument 
in favour of the doctrine, c. 13. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 433 

HIC IN PACE REQVIESCIT LAVRENTIA QVAE CREDIDIT 

resvrrectionem — " Here reposes in peace Laurentia, 
who believed in the resurrection." * 

The very idea of death seems to have been repu- 
diated by the primitive Christians. " Non mortua sed 
data somno," sings Prudentius in paraphrase of the 
words of Our Lord, " She is not dead but sleepeth."f 
Hence the Catacomb was designated the ccemeterium,\ 
or place of sleeping, and the funeral vault the cubiculum, 
or sleeping chamber. The dead were not " buried," as 
the pagan expressions conditus, compositus, situs, indicate ; 
but depositees, " laid down " in their lowly beds till the 
everlasting morn should come, and the angel's trump 
awake them ; consigned as a precious trust to the ten- 
der keeping of mother earth, and " lying in wait for the 
resurrection." § The saints were "fallen asleep" in 
Jesus, and on the bridal morning of the soul they should 
awake with his likeness and be satisfied. The primitive 
Christians believed that the power which called a Laz- 
arus from the tomb could wake to life again the slum- 
bering millions of this valley of dry bones, vaster far 

* A spurious epitaph of the fourteenth century, given by Maitland, 
p. 82, as genuine, thus fantastically refers to this august theme : QVI 
TNQVIETVS VIXI NVNC TANDEM MORTVVS NON LVBENS QVIESCO, 
SOLVS CVR SIM QVAESERIS (sic) VT IN DIE CENSORIO SINE IMPEDI- 
MENTS FACILivs resvrgam — " I who lived restless, being now 
at length dead, rest unwillingly. Do you ask why I am alone? 
That in the day of Judgment I may more readily rise without 
impediment." 

f See also the epitaph given in Book I, chap. iii. — ALEXANDER 
mortvvs non est sed vivit svper astra — " Alexander is not dead 
but lives above the stars." 

\ Similarly the African Christians called their burial places accu 
Htoria — " sleeping places." 

§ Wiseman, Fabiola, p. 145. Dr. McCaul; however, regards the 
expression as simply equivalent to buried. 
28 



434 The Catacombs of Rome. 

than that of Ezekiel's vision, till they should stand up 
upon their feet an exceeding great army. 

But this sleep was a sleep of the body only, not of 
the soul. The ancient Christians were assured, as we 
have seen, of the immediate happiness of those tnat 
died in the faith. They believed that being absent 
from the body they were present with the Lord ; that 
as soon as they passed from earth's living death they 
entered into the undying life and unfading bliss of 
heaven. Though surrounded by the mouldering bodies 
of the saints in Christ, the eye of faith beheld their glo- 
rified spirits, starry-crowned and palm-bearing, among 
the white-robed multitude before the throne of God. 
They admitted no thought of a long and dreary period 
of forgetfulness, nor probation of purgatorial fires, be- 
fore the soul could enter into joy and peace. 

The sublime reflections with which Cyprian con- 
cludes his treatise De Mortalitate nobly express the 
grand consoling thoughts which sustained the primitive 
Christians, and which sustain God's saints in every age. 
" We are but pilgrims and strangers here below," he 
exclaims, " let us then welcome the day that gives to us 
the joys of heaven. What exile longs not for his native 
land ? Our true native land is paradise. A large and 
loving company expects us there. O the bliss of those 
celestial realms where no fear of dying enters ! There 
the glorious choir of the apostles, the exulting com- 
pany of the prophets, the countless army of the mar- 
tyrs, await us. To them let us eagerly hasten. Let us 
long to be with them the sooner, that we may the sooner 
be with Christ." 

What a striking contrast to these holy hopes is the 
pagans' blankness of despair concerning the future. 
Compared with this assurance of a. blissful immortality, 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 435 

how cold and cheerless is their shadowy elysium, their 
unsubstantial visions of the spirit-world ; how terrible 
the gloomy Acherontian lake, dark Lethe's stream, and 
Styx, and fiery Phlegethon. Like a gleam of heaven's 
sunshine in a benighted age are these rude inscriptions 
of the early Christians. Sublimer is their lofty hope, 
reaching forward beyond this world, and laying hands 
of faith upon the eternal verities of the world to come, 
than the imperishable renown of classic sages, or the 
Roman poet's vaunting boast of earthly immortality — 
Non oninis moriar. 

Even the high philosophy of Greece and the noble 
stoicism of the Roman mind afford no consolation to 
the soul brought face to face with the solemn mystery 
of death. A forced and sullen submission to the in- 
evitable is all that they can teach. They shed no light 
upon the world beyond the grave, domvs aeterna — ■ 
"An eternal home,"* and somno aeternali — "In 
eternal sleep," are written on their tombs, frequently ac- 
companied by an inverted torch, the emblem of despair. 
To them death is an unsolved and insoluble problem. 
Their loftiest reasonings lack authority to satisfy the 
mind. It is the gospel of Christ alone which dispels 
the awful shadows of the tomb, plants the flower of 
hope in the very ashes of the grave, and brings life and 
immortality to light ; which appeases the soul-hunger of 
mankind, and meets the yearning cry of the human 
heart. 



* This phrase is sometimes, though very rarely, inadvertently used 
in Christian epitaphs, as also the expression, Tbv ayprjyopov virvov 
nadevdet. — " Sleeps the sleep that knows no waking." Of somewhat 
pagan form is the following epitaph of Cardinal Porto-Carero at To- 
ledo, Hie jacet pulvis cinis et nihil — " Here lies dust and ashes, and 
nothing more." 



436 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Even the thoughtful mind of Pliny could extract no 
comfort from the various theories concerning the future 
state, but looked forward to annihilation as the universal 
doom. " To all," he says, " from the last day of life is 
there the same lot that there was before the first ; nor is 
there any more consciousness after death than there was 
before birth."* Of Agricola, the wise and good, the 
philosophic Tacitus could only say with an incredulous 
sigh, " Doubtless if there be a place for the departed 
spirits of the just, if great souls perish not with the 
body, thou dost calmly repose. "f " That the manes are 
any thing," says Juvenal, " or that the nether world is 
any thing, not even boys believe, unless those still in the 
nursery." J In sullen submission to fate, the pagan sub- 
mits to the inevitable doom. When the name has issued 
from the fatal urn he leaves forever his woods, his- villa, 
his pleasant home, and enters the bark which is to bear 
him into eternal exile. § The wisest sages can only fan 
the embers of their hopes into a flickering flame, and 
cry, "Ha! we have seen the fire." 

The following are examples of the melancholy and 
despairing spirit often breathed by pagan epitaphs : 

PRAEVENERE DIEM VITAE CRVDELIA FATA 
ET RAPTAM INFERNA ME POSVERE RATE 

HOC LECTO ELOGIO IVVENIS MISERERE IACENTIS 
ET DIC DISCEDENS SIT TIBI TERRA LEVIS. 

* Omnibus a suprema die eadem quae ante primum, nee magis a 
morte sensus ullus aut corporis aut animse, quam ante natalem. 

\ Si quis piorum manibus locus, si non cum corpore extinguuntur 
magnae animse, placide quiescas. — Vit. Agric. 
\ Esse aliquid manes et subterranea regna, 

Nee pueri credunt.nisi qui nondum sere lavantur. — Sat., ii, 149. 
§ See that saddest but most beautiful of the odes of Horace — To 
Delium, II, 3. 

. . . Et nos in reternum 
Exilium impositura cymbse. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings 437 

The cruel fates have anticipated the term of life, and placed me, 
snatched away, in the infernal bark. Having read this elegy pity the 
fallen youth and say departing, May the earth be light upon thee. 

INFANTI DVLCISSIMO QVEM DII IRATI AETERNO SOMNO 

dedervnt — " To a very sweet child, whom the angry 
gods gave to eternal sleep." svscipe nvnc conivnx 

51 QVIS POST FVNERA SENSVS DEBITA MANIBVS OFFICIA 

" Receive now, O husband, if after death is any con- 
sciousness, the rites due to departed spirits." The 
hopeless parting of a dying wife is thus expressed : care 

MARITE MIHI DVLCISSIMA NATA VALETE " O husband, 

dear to me, and dearest daughter, farewell." Or more 
briefly we read, ave atqve vale — " Hail and farewell." 
Sometimes the desponding view of life is like the bit- 
ter experience of the Hebrew moralist, " Vanity of 
vanities, all is vanity ! " One such example reads thus : 

DECIPIMVR VOTIS ET TEMPORE FALLIMVR ET MORS 
DERIDET CVRAS ANXIA VITA NIHIL. 
We are deceived by our vows, misled by time, and death derides 
our cares ; anxious life is naught. 

Of similar character is the following recalling the 
complaint of Job, " He cometh forth as a flower and is 
cut down : " vive laetvs qvicvnqve vivis vita par- 

VVM MVNVS EST MOX EXORTA EST SENSIM VIGESCIT 

deinde sensim deficit — " Live joyful who ever thou 
art that livest. Life is a small gift. It is scarcely sprung 
up when it imperceptibly flourishes and then impercep- 

» tibly declines." The succeeding example is remarkable 
for its misanthropy : animal ingrativs homine nvllvm 
est — "No animal is more ungrateful than man." The 

^-..inspired apothegm, " We brought nothing into this world, 
and it is certain we can carry nothing out," is illustrated 
in the following : ex omnibvs bonis svis hoc sibi svmp- 
servnt — " Of all their wealth they possess only this 



438 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tomb." We find also the expression, mater genvit me 
mater recipit — " Mother (earth) nourished me, she 
receives me again," analogous to the declaration of 
Scripture, " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return." Spon gives also the following example: vixi 
vt vivis morieris vt svm mortvvs — "I have lived as 
thou livest, thou shalt die as I have died." Some- 
times the cold consolation is offered that others are 
also the subjects of sorrow and death, as dolor talis 
NON tibi contigit vni — " Such grief affects not thee 
alone ; " nec tibi nec nobis aeternvm vivere cessit 
— " Neither to you nor to us was it granted to live 
forever." Similar to this is a Christian inscription, 
ET*YXE1 CEKOTNAE OYAEIC A9AN0T0C — "Be of good 
cheer, Secundus; no one is immortal." 

More painful even than the gloomy stoicism of many 
pagan inscriptions is the light Epicurean tone which 
frequently occurs, as in the instance which follows, where 
life is compared to a play : 

VIXI • DVM • VIXI • BENE • 1AM • MEA 
PERACTA • MOX • VESTRA • AGETVR 
FABVLA • VALETE ■ ET • PLAVDITE . 

While I lived, I lived well. My play is now ended, soon yours 
will be. Farewell and applaud me.* 

In the succeeding example the sentiment is still more 
Anacreontic. It breathes the true pagan spirit, Carpe 
diem — " Seize the day. Pluck each flower of pleasure as 
you pass. Press all life's nectar into one frenzied 
draught and drain it to the dregs. Let us eat and drink, 

* In a similar spirit the dying emperor Aagustus inquired if he had 
played his part well in the farce of life, and asked the applause of his 
courtiers. 

A 6 re icporov 
Kal iravTEC vfielc; uetu x n P^ KTvirf/aaTe. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 439 

for to-morrow we die." Even in the solemn presence 
of death, the soul, unawed by the dread shadow of the 
future, turns regretfully to the vanished pleasures of 
earth, and finds its only consolation in the thought of 
their enjoyment. 

U • M • TI ; CLAVDI • SECVNDI 
HIC • SECVM ■ HABET • OMNIA 
BALNEA • VINVM • VENVS • CORRVMPVNT • CORPORA 
NOSTRA • SED • VITAM • FACIVNT B • V • V • 
To the Divine Manes of Tiberius Claudius Secundus. Here he en- 
joys everything. Baths, wine, and lust ruin our constitutions, but— 
they malce life what it is. Farewell, farewell.* 

The following expresses the "very essence of coarse 
sensualism : qvod edi et bibi mecvm habeo qvod 
reliqvi perdidi — "What I ate and drank I have 
with me; what I left I have lost." Compare the 
moral antithesis of the sentiment expressed by John 
Wesley : "What I gave away I have still ; what I kept I 
have lost." 

Frequently the pagan epitaphs contain an outburst 
of scorn or defiance of the unjust gods that sit aloft 
and make their sport of human woe, as is seen in the 
accompanying examples : 

PROCOPE • MANVS • LEBO • CONTRA • DEVM 

QVI • ME • INNOCENTEM • SVSTVLIT. 

I, Procope, lift up my hands against the god who snatched away 
me innocent. 

In an epitaph in the Lapidarian Gallery a bereaved 
mother in the bitterness of her soul cries out : 

ATROX O FORTVNA TRVCI QVAE FVNERE GAVDES 
QVTD MIHI TAM SVBITO MAXIMVS ERIPITVR 
QVI MODO IVCVNDVS GREMIO SVPERESSE SOLEBAT 
HIC LAPIS IN TVMVLO NVNC IACET ECCE MATER. 

* The Swedish poet Georg St. Jernhjelm ordered to be written on 
his tomb the pagan sentiment, VIXIT DVM VIXIT LAETVS — " While he 
lived he lived merrily." 



44° Tk* Catacombs of Rome. 

O relentless Fortune, who delightest in cruel death, 
Why is Maximus so suddenly snatched from me? 
He who lately used to be joyful in my bosom, 
This stone now marks his tomb. — Behold his mother. 
Compare also the following: invida libittna filiis 
abstvlit patrem — " Envious Libitina snatched away 
a father from his children ; " victa est ivsticia non 
aeqvo ivdice fato — " Justice is overcome by that uniust 
judge, Fate; " diis iniqvis animvlam tvam rapvervnt 
— "To the unjust gods, (who) snatched away thy soul." 
But the holy teachings of Christianity revealed to the 
weary and heavy laden souls of men, aching with a 
sense of orphanage, the loving Fatherhood of God,* 
and produced a spirit of meekness and resignation alto- 
gether foreign to the pagan mind. Of pathetic interest, 
as illustrating this fact, is a Christian fragment of date 
circ. A. D. 600, on which we may still read the in- 
scription 

QVI • DEDIT • ET ■ ABSTVLIT 
.... OMINI • BENEDIC .... 

The familiar words suggest the imperishable thought, 
which has been a source of consolation to bereaved 
ones in every age. " Like a voice from among the 
graves," says Dr. Maitland, " broken by sobs, yet dis- 
tinctly intelligible, fall these words on the listening ear, 
' who gave, and hath taken away — blessed [be the 
name] of the Lord.' " 

We occasionally find pagan inscriptions breathing a 
sense of spiritual existence and hope of future life.f 
The yearning of the human heart that 

Longs for the touch of a vanished hand 
And the sound of a voice that is still, 

* " God counts even the bristles of the swine," says Tertullian, 
" much more the hairs of his children." 

f The following proposes a practical test of the existence of spirits : 
TV LEGIS ET DVBITAS MANES ESSE SPONSIONE FACTA INVOCA NOS E7 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 441 

and the hunger of the soul for communion with the 
dear departed in the loving tryst of the silent land are 
pathetically expressed in the following prayer of Furia 
Spes : peto vos manes sanctissimae (sic) . . . mevm 

CONIVGEM HORIS NOCTVRNIS VT VIDEAM ET ETIAM VT 
EGO DVLCIVS ET CELERIVS APVD EVM PERVENIRE POS- 

sim — " I beseech you, most holy spirits, that I may 
behold my husband in the midnight hours ; and also that 
I may more sweetly and swiftly go to him." 

More common, however, is the feeling of hopeless 
severance expressed by the frequent valediction, vale 
vale longvm vale — " Farewell, farewell, a long fare- 
well ; " or, sadder still, vale aeternvm — " Farewell 
forever." 

There occur in the Catacombs frequent examples of 
acclamations addressed to the departed, expressive of a 
desire for their happiness and peace. These acclama- 
tions have been quoted by Romanist writers as indicat- 
ing a belief in the doctrine of purgatory, and in the 
efficacy of prayers on behalf of the dead. The im- 
portance of this subject will justify its careful ex- 
amination. Many of the examples quoted by Roman 
controversialists are not precatory at all, but simply 
declarative.* But there are others in which the ex- 
pression assumes a distinctively optative form. Some 

INTELLIGES — " You who read this epitaph and doubt whether spirits 
exist, invoke us, and by our answer you will know." 

* Thus in Rock's Hierurgia, a standard Romanist authority, such 
expressions as req in pace are explained sometimes in defiance of 
the grammatical construction of the context, as signifying "' Mayest thou 
rest," as if reqviescas, instead of, in analogy with numerous other 
examples, " he rests," — reqviescit. Sometimes the cardinal word is 
entirely omitted, as in the expression, IN pace et benedictione, 
which is quite unwarrantably translated, " May you rest in peace 
and benediction." 



44 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

of these may be of comparatively late date, as the graf- 
fiti, or inscriptions of pilgrims near the more celebrated 
shrines, of which we have seen examples at the so-called 
"papal crypt." But others are unquestionably part of 
the original epitaphs. We find, for instance, such ex- 
pressions as vivas — " May you live ; " vivas in deo, ZHC 
EN GEQ — " May you live in God; " vivas in eternvm — 
" May you live forever; " eterna tibi lvx — " Eternal 
light to thee ; " estote in pace — ■" Be in peace ; " vivas 
inter sanctos — " May you live among the holy ones ; " 
vivas in nomine xti — " May you live, in the name of 
Christ; " ZHCHC (tic) IN AEO XPICTO — " May you live in 
God Christ ; " vivas in domino zezv — " May you live 
in the Lord Jesus;" vivas vincas — "May you live, 
may you conquer;" dormitio tva inter dicaeis, 
(AIKAIOIC) — " May your sleep be among the just ; " 
devs tibi refrigeret — spiritvm tvvm refrigeret 
— " God refresh thee, refresh thy spirit ; " E1PHNH COI 
—"Peace to thee;" EN EIPHNH SOY TO IINEYMA— 
" In peace be thy spirit ; " O 6E0C ANAI1AYCH THN 
¥YXHN EN CKHNAIC AriQN — " God give thy soul 
rest in the tents of the holy." These, it will be per- 
ceived, are not intercessions for the dead, but mere 
apostrophes addressed to them, as is apparent in 
the following : ZQTIKE ZHCAICEN (sic) KYPIQ 9APP1, (sic)— 
" Zoticus, mayest thou live in the Lord. Be of good 
cheer." They were no more prayers for the souls of 
the departed than is Byron's verse, " Bright be the place 
of thy rest." 

But the wish sometimes takes the form of a prayer 
for the beloved one, as MNHC9HC IHCOYC O KYPIOC 
TEKNON EM . . . — " Remember, O Lord Jesus, our 
child ; " AEOYC XPICTOYC OMNIIIOTEC CllIPIT . . . 
TOT PE4» . irEPE IN ^, (Latin in Greek characters,) 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 443 

■ — " May the Almighty God Christ refresh thy spirit in 
Christ." NHMNHBH EAYTOT Q 0EOC ICTOTC ATOAC (sic) 
— " Remember him, O God, among thy lambs ; " 
MNHCGHTl KTPIE THC. KOIMHCEQC THC AOYAHC COY AN- 
AnAYCON THN *YXHN TOY AOYAOY COY EN TO *i2TINii 
EN TQ ANAtYgEGC EIC KOAnON ABPAAM, — " Remember, 
O God, the sleep of thy servant ; give rest to the 
soul of thy servant in the light, in the refreshment in 
Abraham's bosom : " domine ne advmbretvr spiritvs 
— "O Lord! let not (this) soul be brought into' dark- 
ness ; " MNHC9H AYTOY GEOC EIC TOYC A1QNAC — " May 
God remember him forever."* 

These intense expressions of affection of the ardent 
Italian nature f that would fain follow the loved object 
— "though lost to sight to memory dear " — beyond the 
barrier of the tomb, are surely a slight foundation on 
which to build the vast system of mercenary masses for 
the dead. And yet they are the only evidences that 
keen Roman controversialists can adduce from these 
Christian inscriptions of the first six centuries.J And, 
be it remembered, these inscriptions were not a for- 
mulated and authoritative creed framed by learned the- 
ologians, but the untutored utterances of humble peas- 
ants, many of whom were recent converts from pagan- 

* Sometimes the modernized form of the language indicates the 
late origin of graffiti found on ancient monuments, as in the follow- 
ing, PREGA ILA PER SILVINA, VIVI ILA NEL DIO CRISTO. 

\ The adoring love of Cicero for his daughter found expression in 
the building of a temple to her memory. 

% Rock quotes them as "proof" that the primitive Christians be- 
lieved that the soul of the deceased might be in an intermediate 
state, where the efficacy of such aspirations could reach him, and his 
spirit could be refreshed and benefitted by the supplications of his 
surviving brethren. — Hierurgia, p. 322. He gives several examples 
similar to the above ; but no accumulation of such evidence affords the 
slightest warrant for the corrupt practice of the Church of Rome. 



444 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ism or Judaism, in which religions such expressions 
were a customary sepulchral formula. The accompanying 
examples indicate the prevalence of this practice in pagan 
epigraphy : ave or have vale — " Hail, farewell ; " di tibt 
benefaciant — " May the gods be good to thee ; " ossa 
tva bene qviescant — " May thy bones rest well ; " sit 
tibi terra levis — " May the earth be light upon thee; " 
XAIPE ETI1AOEI— ETAPOMEI — " Rejoice, a safe voyage, 
a prosperous journey ; " EY*YXEI KTPIA KAI A£2H cor 
OCIP1C TO *TXPON TAQP — "Be of good cheer, O 
lady, and to thee Osiris give to quaff the cooling 
water;"* EN MTPOIC COI TEKNON H *YXH — "In 
precious odours be thy soul, my child ; " hic manes 

PLACIDA NOCTE QVIESCANT ET SVPER IN NIDO MARA- 

thonia cantet aedon — " Here may the manes rest 
throughout the placid night, and above thee in her nest 
may the Marathonian nightingale sing ; " bene valeas 
mater rogat te vt me ad te recipias vale — " Fare- 
well, thy mother prays, O take me to thyself again, 
farewell." f In the Jewish epitaphs these acclama- 
tions are much more common than in the Christian in- 
scriptions. The following is an example : marcia bona 
ivdea dormitio in bonis — " Marcia, a good Jewess, 
thy sleep be among the good." On many modern He- 
brew tombstones are the words, " Let his soul be bound 
up in the bundle of life." 

Small wonder, therefore, that those Christian converts 
who had been brought up in pagan or Jewish supersti- 
tion should retain traces of this ancient custom so con- 
genial to the sympathies of the human heart, unpre 
scient as they were of the baneful results to which it 
would lead. Their freedom of language had not yet 
been restricted, as Bishop Kip remarks, to the cold 
* Burgon. f Ibid. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 445 

rules of ordinary logic by the fear of deadly heresy 
We know, indeed, from the testimony of the Fathers, 
that mention of the dead was frequently made in the 
prayers of the church. These prayers, however, were 
often thanksgivings — evx*i £vx a 9 laT V9 t0 ? — for those who 
were asleep in Christ, or commemorations of their vir- 
tues for the improvement of the living.* Many of the 
Fathers vigorously protest against the idea that the 
dead can be benefitted by any prayers on their behalf, 
and strongly assert their changeless state in the other 
world. f The notion, however, of the efficacy of these 
prayers gradually crept into the church ; but that they 
were not conceived to procure remission from purgato- 
rial flames is evident from the fact that, even at a com- 
paratively late period, they were offered on behalf of the 
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and saints, and 
even of the Virgin Mary herself, who were all believed 
to be in the immediate presence of God. At length 
even this tremendous error found entrance into the 
church, and gave into the hands of a mercenary hie- 
rarchy the keys of heaven and hell. 

But in the testimony of the Catacombs is no trace 
of that torturing doctrine which hangs the heart on 
tenter-hooks of dread suspense, and wrings from the 
lacerated affections a dole to a hireling priesthood for 

* Ut ex recordatione eorum proficiamus. — Orig. in Rom., xii. 
These commemorations of the departed were generally celebrated on 
the anniversaries of their death — their birthday as it was called — Ob- 
lationes pro defunctis pro natalitiis, annua die facimus — -Tertul., De 
Coron. Mil., c. 3 ; cf. De Monogam., c. 10. 

f Quando isthinc excessum fuerit, nullus jam locus pcemtentise est, 
nullus satisfactionis effectus. — Cypr. ad Demet., § 16 ; cf. Greg. Naz., 
de Rebus suis, and Hieron. in Galat., c. 6. The modern Greek church 
offers prayers for the dead without believing, in the doctrine of 
purgatory. .- • * 



146 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the exercise of their ghostly functions in delivering the 
souls of the departed from burning flame There is no 
hint in their cheerful art and pious epitaphs of the 
Dantean horrors, the worse than Sisyphean toil, and 
torments more dire than those of Tantalus, under the 
intense conception of which for centuries the heart of 
Christendom was wrung. No; the early church believed 
the pious dead already to enjoy the ampler life, the 
more ethereal air, and sweet beatitude of paradise.* 

Associated with the Romish practice of praying for 
the dead is that of praying to them. For this there is 
still less authority in the testimony of the Catacombs 
than for the former. There are, indeed, indications that 
this custom was not unknown, but they are very rare 
and exceptional. In all the dated inscriptions of the 
first six centuries, thirteen hundred and seventy- 
four in number, there is only one invocation of the 
departed. It is that of the year 380, already given, in 
which from the heart of an orphaned and ignorant f girl, 
in the hour of her bitter sorrow and bereavement, is 
wrung the cry, pro hvnc vnvm ora svbolem — " O pray 
for this, thine only child." The few undated inscrip- 
tions of a similar character are probably of as late, or 
it may be of a much later, date than this; and the in- 
vocation is almost invariably uttered by some relative 
of the deceased, as if prompted by natural affection 
rather than by religious feeling. Thus we have such 
examples as the following : pete pro filiis tvis — " Pray 
for thy children; " pete et roga pro fratres et so- 
boles tvos, {sic) — " Entreat and pray for your brothers 

* The doctrine of purgatory was first preached by Gregory the 
Great ; and this fiery realm, so rich in revenue of tears and blood, 
was afterward formally annexed to the papal dominions by a bulL 

f See the barbarous Latinity of the inscription, p. 426. 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 447 

and children ; " ora pro parentibvs tvis — " Pray for 
thy parents ; " vibas in pace et pete pro nobis — " May 
you live in peace and pray for us ; " vibas in deo et 
roga — " May you live in God and pray ; " in oration- 

IBVS TVIS ROGES PRO NOBIS QVIA SCIMVS TE IN jfc "111 

your prayers, pray for us, for we know you (to be) in 
Christ." AIONTCIOC NHIIIOC AKAKOC EN6AAE KEITE 
META TS2N ATIQN MNHCKEC9E AE KAI HMflN EN TAIC 
AriAIC TMON nPEYXAC KAI TOT TAY^ATOC KAI TPA- 
¥ANTOC — " Dionysius a spotless infant, lies here with 
the saints. O remember us also in thy holy prayers ; 
aye, and the sculptor and writer as well." The last 
clause is in smaller characters as if an afterthought.* 

These few examples among eleven thousand inscrip- 
tions, of which the greater number are of post-Constan- 
tinian date, are a slight foundation for the vast Roman 
system of the invocation of saints. " If this doctrine," 
says Bishop Kip, " so much in unison with many of the 
deepest feelings of our nature, had been held by the 
primitive church, we should have found it written 
broadly and clearly every-where through these epitaphs. 
Its proof would not be left to half a dozen inscriptions 
among thousands which plainly declare the reverse." 
How different from these lowly crypts is a modern 
Romish sepulchral chapel, with its ceaseless appeals by 

* Some of the examples of alleged invocation of saints given by 
Romanist writers are altogether gratuitous assumptions. Thus the 
letters P. T. PR. N. s. have been, without the slightest warrant, expanded 
thus, Pete pro nobis, "Pray for us." Others are merely requests to 
be remembered by the dear departed, as AIONTCIN EIC MNIAN 
EXETE — " Have ye in remembrance Dionysius. " The graffiti of 
the pilgrims at the shrines of the more celebrated martyrs, in which 
are occasional invocations of the dead, are no criteria of primitive 
belief and practice, for these are of every age down to comparatively 
late mediaeval times. The example in the text is from Burton. 



448 The Catacombs of Rome. 

the dead for the prayers of the living, and by the living 
for the prayers of the dead ; with its ever-recurring Orate 
pro anima, and Maria sanctissima, ora pro nobis. We 
search in vain through all the corridors of those an- 
cient sanctuaries of the Christian faith for a single ex- 
ample of these now universal Romish formulae. 

The invocation of saints probably sprang from the 
superstitious reverence paid to the martyrs aftei :he 
age of persecution had passed. Miserere nostrarum pre- 
eum, " Pitying, hear our prayer," sings Prudentius at the 
close of the fourth century in his hymn to St. Vincent. 

VT DAMASI PRECIBVS FAVEAS PRECOR INCLYTA MARTYR 

" Illustrious martyr, I beseech thee to aid my prayers," 
writes Damasus about the same period in his epitaph on 
St. Agnes ; and in an epitaph on his sister Irene he ex- 
claims, NOSTRI REMINISCERE VIRGO VT TVA PER DOM- 

invm praestet mihi facvla lvmen — " Remember me, 
O virgin, that by God's help your torch may give me 
light." 

Thus was developed in course of time avast celestial 
hierarchy endowed with the attributes of Deity,* usurp- 
ing the intercessory office of Christ, and rivalling the 
polytheism of paganism. The primitive Fathers repu- 
diated the worship of any saint or angel, or the inter- 
vention of any mediator with God but Christ. " We 
worship the Son of God," write the elders of Smyrna, 
"but the martyrs we only love." f "We sacrifice not 
to martyrs," says Augustine, " but to the one God, both 

* Qui lumine Christi 
Cuticta et operta vides, longeque absentia cernis. 

— Paulin., Afat. vi 
See also the Litany of the Saints in Romish Missal. 
Tlbv tov Qeov , irpoonvvovftev rovg <Je fidprvpag ayanufiev. — Euseb., 
»v, 35- 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 449 

theirs and ours ; " * "nor is our religion," he indignantly 
adds, "the worship of dead men."f "It is the devil 
who has introduced this homage of angels," says Chry- 
sostomjj and the Council of Laodicea, (A. D. 361,) 
forbade their invocation as idolatrous and a forsaking 
of Christ. § 

We now turn from these polemical subjects to the 
consideration of the doctrines, common to Christendom, 
of the trinity of the Godhead and the divinity of Jesus 
Christ. We know from ecclesiastical history that nu- 
merous heresies sprang up in the early centuries with 
reference to these august themes ; but no evidence ac- 
cuses the church in the Catacombs of departure from 
the primitive and orthodox faith in these important 
respects. Frequently, indeed, the belief in these car- 
dinal doctrines is so strongly asserted as to suggest, that 
it is in designed and vigorous protest against the con- 
temporary heretical notions. 

The doctrine of the essential divinity of the Son of 
God is repeatedjy and strikingly affirmed. Not only are 
the symbolical letters Alpha and Omega often associated 
with the sacred monogram, in allusion to the sublime 
passage in the Revelation descriptive of the eternity of 

* Nee . . . sacrificemus martyribus, sed uni Deo et martyrum et 
nostra. — De Civ. Dei., 22, 10. 

\ Non sit nobis religio cultus hominum mortuorum. — De Ver. 
Relig., c. 55. 

\ 'O Siuf3o7iog ra tuv ayyeluv kireKT^yaye. — Horn., 9. 

§ O11 del XpMJTiavovg ayykTiovq ovofiu&iv. — Can., 35. The "saints" 
of the primitive church, says SchafT, were the whole body of believers, 
and not a narrow spiritual aristocracy, as in the Romish church. The 
Coancil of Constantinople, A. D. 712, decreed that " Whosoever will 
not avail himself of the intercession of the Virgin Mary, let him be 
accursed." " May God Almighty forgive your sin by the merits of 
Our Lady," said Gregory VII. to Beatrice and Matilda.— Harduin 
vi, 1235. 

29 



45 -3 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Christ, but his name and Messianic title are variously 
combined with that of the Deity so as to indicate their 
identity. Thus we have the expressions zhchc in deo 
XPICTO, (st'c) — EN 9ES2 KTPEIQ XEICTQ, (sic) — VIBAS 
in christo deo — in domino iesv — " May you live in 
God Christ — in God, the Lord Christ — in Christ God — 
in the Lord Jesus." Or the divine attributes are still 
more strongly expressed as follows : AEOTC XPICTOTC 
OMNinOTEC, (sic) — " God Christ Almighty ; " deo sanc 
xro vn lvc, (sic) — " God, holy Christ, only light ; " deo 
sanc •£ vni, (sic) — "To Christ, the one holy God." 
We have seen the impression in the plaster of a grave 
whereby some orthodox believer, probably in protest 
against the Arian heresy, has " set to his seal " that 
"Christ is God." Fig. 119, page 386.* 

Mention is made of the three persons of the Trinity 
separately in several epitaphs in which the deceased is 

* We have frequent evidence of the zeal of the early Christians in 
the study of the Scriptures. The Bible was not the sealed book that 
it is in modern Rome. Jerome counsels that it be frequently read 
and scarcely ever laid aside, that it be studied not as a task but for 
delight and instruction, and that some of it be learned by heart every 
day. — Divinas Scripturas soepius lege, imo nunquam de manibus tuis 
sacra lectio deponatur. — Ep. ad Nepotian., 7. Non ad laborem, sed 
ad delectationem et instructionem anima?. — Ep. ad Demetriad, 15. 
Nee licebat cuiquam sororum ignorare psalmos, et non de Scripturis 
Sanctis quotidie aliquid discere. — Ep. ad Eustoch, 19. 

We find no traces in the early period of the church of the fierce 
intolerance and dreadful anathemas that mark modern Romanism. 
Tertullian in golden words asserts that liberty of conscience which 
a Dominic and Torquemada afterward so ruthlessly trampled under 
foot. " It is a fundamental human right," he exclaims, " that every 
man should worship according to his own conviction. It is no part of 
religion to compel religion." — Ad Scap., 2. Compare also the wise 
words of Cassiodorus: "Cum divinitas patiatur multas religiones 
esse, nos unam non audemus imponere. Retinemus enim legisse, 
voluntarie sacrificandum esse domino, non cujusquam cogentis im- 
perio." 



Their Doctrinal Teachings. 45 1 

said to sleep in deo — in christo — in spiritv sancto, 
and collectively in the following of date 403, qvin- 

TILIANVS HOMO DEI CONFIRMANS TRINITATEM AMANS 

cast itatem respvens mvndvm — " Quintilianus, a man 
of God, holding fast the doctrine of the Trinity, lov- 
ing chastity, contemning the world." In later exam- 
ples from Aqueilia and other places we find the formulae, 
in nomine sanctae trinitatis — patris et filii et 
spiritvs sancti — " In the name of the Holy Trinity — 
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."* 

Patristic evidence informs us that both these doc- 
trines were firmly held by the primitive Christians. 
The doxologies, benedictions, and baptismal formula, 
of the ancient liturgies are all in the name of the triune 
God. The divinity of the three persons and at the 
same time the unity of the Godhead are distinctly and 

* The pagan Lucian satirizes the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, 
" one in three and three in one " — "Ev Ik. rpiuv, icai ef hog rpta. — Phi- 
lopatr., ad fine. Pliny mentions the Christian worship of Christ as 
God, " Carmenque Christo quasi Deo." — Ep. ad Had. In response to 
the heathen accusation of worshipping a mere man, a crucified im- 
postor — uveaKoloma/HF.VTjv codLarrjV, (Luc, de Mort. Pereg.,) the 
Christians reply that he is also God : Tlog koI iraTTjp eig a/j.<pu ninuog 
— Clem., Paed., iii, 12 ; " Deus est et Dei Filius, et unus ambo." — Ter- 
tu\.,Apol., 30. In contrast to Christian monotheism, Tertullian ridi- 
cules the polytheism of the heathen, and compares the contests of the 
gods in Homer to those of gladiators. — Ad. Nat., 10. Invtating the 
keen irony of Isaiah, he exclaims, " You make a cooking pot of Saturn 
a frying pan of Minerva. Even the mice gnaw, the spiders defoul 
your gods." — Ibid., ii, 12. The trinity of Plato and the Hindoo sages 
was a mere speculative subtlety. Tertullian spurned the fusion of 
philosophy and Christian doctrine. "Away with such mottled Chris- 
tianity," he exclaims. — De Prascrip. Hceret., c. 7. Compare his 
noble confession of faith in God, the eternal Spirit, an incorporeal 
essence, the true Prometheus who gave order to the world, conclud- 
ing with the noble words, " We say, and before all men we say, and 
torn and bleeding under your tortures we cry out, ' We worship God 
through Cluist."' — Apol., 17-22. 

ft 



45- The Catacombs of Rome. 

often asserted. This is also affirmed in frequent Chris- 
tian inscriptions " to the one God" — deo vno. {sic.) 

Such, then, is the testimony of the Catacombs con- 
cerning the doctrines of the early believers — a testimony 
more favourable to the general character of ancient 
Christianity than the writings of the Fathers and eccle- 
siastical historians of the times ; probably, as Dr. Maitland 
remarks, because " the sepulchral tablet is more con- 
genial to the expression of pious feeling than the con- 
troversial epistle, or even the much needed episcopal 
rebuke." We know, indeed, from these latter sources, 
that heresy, strife, recrimination, and mutual anathemas 
early disgraced the religion of peace and love. But no 
sounds of this profane controversy disturbed those quiet 
resting-places of the Christian dead. The expression 
of faith and hope and joy and peace — the peace of God 
that passeth all understanding — every-where appears. 
The stricken and sorrowing believer burst not forth like 
the heathen in passionate complainings and impotent 
rage against the gods, but bowed in meek submission to 
His will who doeth all things well. With devout and 
chastened spirit he bore the ills of life, and with calm 
confidence and holy joy he met the doom of death, 

Not like the quarry slave, at night 
Scourged to his dungeon ; but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approached his grave, 
Like one who wrapped the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lay down to pleasant dreams.* 

* Bryant's Thanatopsis. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 453 



CHAPTER III. 

CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER AS READ IN THE 
CATACOMBS. 

The inscriptions of the Catacombs give us many inter- 
esting indications of the social position, domestic rela- 
tions, and general character of the primitive Christians, 
as well as of their religious belief. They lift the veil 
of ages from the buried past and cause it to live again, lit 
up with a thousand natural touches which we seek in 
vain from books. They bridge the gulf of time, and 
make us in a sense contemporaries of the early church 
They give us an insight into the daily life and occupa- 
tions of the ancient believers, of which no mention is 
made in the crowded page of history. The winding 
Catacombs are the whispering gallery of the bygone 
ages. Their humble epitaphs are echoes thrilling with 
a deep and tender meaning, too low and gentle to be 
heard across the strife of intervening years. In their 
touching pathos we seem to hear the sob of natural sorrow 
for the loved and lost, " the fall of kisses on unanswer- 
ing clay," the throbbings of the human heart in the 
hour of its deepest emotion, when the parting pang un- 
seals the founts of feeling in the soul. We read of the 
yearnings of an affection that reaches beyond the grave, 
and hungers for reunion with the dear departed above 
the skies ; the expression of an inextinguishable love that 
death itself cannot destroy. We see the emblematic 
palm and crown rudely scratched upon the grave 
wherein the Christian athlete, having fought the fight 



454 The Catacombs of Rome. 

and kept the faith, has entered into dreamless rest We 
read, too, the records of the worldly rank of the de- 
ceased — sometimes exalted, more often lowly and ob- 
scure — frequently accompanied by the emblems of 
their humble toil. 

The very names written on these marble slabs are 
often beautifully and designedly expressive of Christian 
sentiment or character. Sometimes the correspondence 
of name and character is indicated, as in the following : 
2IMTIAIKIA H KAI KAAQNTM02 — " Simplicia who was 
also rightly so-called ; " hic vervs qvi semper vera 
locvtvs — " Here lies Verus, who ever spoke verity." 
These names were frequently assumed in adult age, 
when the convert from paganism laid aside his former 
designation, often of an idolatrous meaning, in order to 
adopt one more consistent with the Christian profession. 
Thus we have such beautifully significant names as 
innocentia, " Innocence ; " constantia, " Constancy ; " 
prvdentia, " Prudence ; " dignit as, " Dignity ; " decen- 
tia, "Comeliness;" peregrinvs, "A pilgrim;" sab- 
bata, " Rest ; " anastasia, " The resurrection ; " II12T12, 
" Faith ; " EAIII2 and spes, " Hope ; " ArAnH, " Love ; " 
EIPHNH, "Peace;" ArAGH, "Good;" ET2EBI02, 
" Pious ; " ETKAPniA, " Good fruit ; " probvs, " Just ; " 
felix, "Happy;" fidelis, "Faithful;" fortvnata, 
" Fortunate ; " vervs, " True; " dignvs, " Worthy ; " 
casta, " Pure ; " benignvs, " Kind ; " nobilis, " No- 
ble ; " amabilis, " Amiable ; " ingenva, " Sincere ; " 
venerosa, " Venerable ; " gavdiosa, " Rejoicing , " 
grata, "Pleasing; " candidvs, " Frank; " dvlcis and 
TAYKT2, "Sweet; " severa, " Grave; " with the com- 
paratives, felicior, nobilior, etc., and the superla- 
tives, felicissima, " Most happy; " nobilissima, " Most 
noble;" fidelissima, "Most faithful;" dignissima. 



Social and Domestic Relatio?is. 455 

" Most worthy ; " dvlcissima, " Most sweet ; " and the 
like.* 

Sometimes, too, a pious word or phrase was used as a 
proper name, as among the ancient Hebrews and the 
English Puritans. Thus we have such examples as, 
qvod vvlt devs, " What God wills ; " devs dedit, 
" God gave ; " adeodatvs f and adeodata, " Given 
by God ; " GEOTOKOS, " God-born ; " 9E0AQPA, " God- 
given;" deo gratia, "Thanks to God; " BEO<MA02, 
" God-beloved; "J renatvs, "Born again;-" redemp- 
tvs, " Redeemed ; " acceptissima, " Very well pleas- 
ing; " bonifacivs, "Well-doer; " EYIIP02AEKT02, "Ac- 
cepted " or "Acceptable; " and 2S2ZOMENH, " Saved. "§ 
De Rossi thinks that the expressions, ancilla dei, 
" Handmaid of God ; " and servvs dei, " Servant of 
God," are sometimes proper names. 

Some of the names in these inscriptions were proba- 
bly given by the heathen in reproach and contempt, 
and were afterward adopted by the Christians in humil- 
ity and self-abasement. It is difficult to account other- 
wise for such names as, contvmeliosvs, " Injurious ; " 

* Some of these occur also on pagan tombs. 

f This, it will be remembered, was the name of Augustine's son, 
whose early death he so pathetically laments. 

\ Compare also the classic names Diodorus, Herodotus, Athena- 
dorus, Heliodorus, Apollodorus, Isidorus — the gift of Zeus, of Here, 
of Athene, of the Sun, of Apollo, of Isis ; and Diogenes, Hermog- 
enes — born of £eus, of Hermes ; also the beautiful German names 
Gottlieb, Gottlob — Beloved of God, Praise God, etc. 

§ Compare the Puritan names : Accepted, Redeemed, Called, 
More Fruit, Kill Sin, Fly Debate, and even lengthy texts of Scrip- 
ture. See Neal's Puritans, ii, 133, third foot note. In New England 
graveyards may still be found such names as Assurance, Faith, Hope, 
Charity, Patience, Perseverance, and all the cardinal virtues, together 
with Tribulation, and others still more ominous. Mr. Wellbeloved is 
Ihename of a living person. See also the French Bien Aiwe,elc. 



456 The Catacombs of Rome. 

calamitosa, " Destructive ; " proiectvs, " Cast out ; " 
servilis, " Servile ; " and especially such opprobrious ep- 
ithets as fimus and stercoria, " Dung " and " Filth." In 
the last there may be an allusion to the words of St. Paul, 
(i Cor. iv, 13,) "We are- made as the filth of the world, 
and are the offscouring of all things unto this day." 
Thus the primitive believers bound persecution as a 
wreath about their brows, exulted in the glorious infamy, 
and made the brand of shame the badge of honour. 

A few Scripture names occur, and have a strangely 
foreign look amid those of Greek or Latin origin by 
which they are surrounded. Thus we have Petrus, 
Joannes, Paulus, Stephanus, Rebecca, Elizabeth, 
Susanna, and Maria. The extreme rarity of the last, 
however, since so popular throughout Christendom, is an 
indication that the homage of the Virgin Mary is the 
growth of later times. 

The names of animals were often applied to both 
Christians and pagans, as Aper, Leo, Leopardus, Por- 
cella, Muscula, Tigris, Ursus, and Ursa; and some of 
these we have seen pictorially represented on the 
tombs.* Other names were derived from the months, as 
Januarius, Aprilis, December, etc. ; and even from the 
appellations of the pagan deities, as Mercurius, Apolli- 
naris, etc. Sometimes the pet name by which the de- 
ceased was familiarly known in life is recorded, as 
Agnella, " Little Lamb ; " Lepusculus and Leporilla, 
" Little Hare ; " Rosula, " Little Rose ; " Jocundilla, 
" Merry Little Thing," etc.f 

* Compare the funeral totems, the beaver, the bear, or eagle, of 
the American Indians. The Greeks also had similar names : Lycos, 
a wolf; Moschos, a calf; Corax, a raven ; Sauros, a lizard, etc. 

f Sometimes a sort of pun or play upon words occurs, as the fol- 
lowing: HIC IACET GLYCON1S DVLCIS NOMINE ERAT ANIMA QVO- 
qve dvi.cior vsqve — " Here lies Glyconis. She was sweet by 



Social and Domestic Relations. 457 

Most of the names, as might be expected, were of 
classic origin, sometimes indicating alliance with fami- 
lies of senatorial, consular, or even imperial rank. We 
find also indications of the custom of adopting the 
names of the reigning dynasty. The modern Victorias 
and Alberts find their analogues in the Aurelias and 
Constantias of the Aurelian and Constantinian periods. 
The lofty prsenomen, nomen, and cognomen of the pa- 
gan epitaphs rarely appear in this Christian series. Only 
two or three examples of these triple names occur. 
Even two names become uncommon, and persons un- 
doubtedly entitled to these distinctions of rank were 
recorded only by a single name. Having renounced 
the pride of birth, and place, and power, they laid aside 
their worldly titles for the new name given in Christian 
baptism. Sometimes the names of the deceased are 
not recorded in the epitaphs at all, perhaps, as Fabretti 
suggests, because they wish them to be written only in 
the Book of Life.* For the same reason probably, or 
from poverty or ignorance, most of the funeral tiles and 
slabs bear no inscription whatever. 

These inscriptions frequently give intimations of the 
social rank and occupations of the deceased. Some- 
times the enumeration of titles indicates exalted posi- 

name, her disposition also was even sweeter." HEic est sepvlchrvm 
pvlcrvm pvlcrae feminae — " Here is the beautiful tomb of a beau- 
tiful woman." Much of the paronomasia is lost in translation. 
Another conceit is giving the name of the deceased acrostically in 
the initial letters of the lines, an invariable symbol of degraded taste. 
See De Rossi, No. 677, A. D. 432. 

A few examples of Gothic names occur, as Bringa, Uviliaric, Erida, 
(is it Freda?) Ildebrand. In Gaul these are more striking, as Ingo- 
mir, Hagen, and the like. 

* Quia solum in libvo vitre describi avebant. — Inscrip. Atitiq., 
P. 545- 



458 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tion and the holding of important offices of trust. 
Especially was this the case after the public establish- 
ment of Christianity. Many of the later inscriptions 
recount in pompous and inflated terms, strongly contrast- 
ing with the brevity and simplicity of the earlier exam- 
ples, the civil dignities and distinctions of the departed. 
We have already seen the epitaph of an Imperial Proc- 
urator.* The following are examples of later date. 

IVN BASSVS • V • C • QVI VIXIT ANNIS • XLII MEN • II IN IPSA PRAE- 
fectvra vrbi neofitvs IIT AD devm — "Junius Bassus, a most dis- 
tinguished man, who lived forty-two years, two months. Whilst 
holding the office of Prsefect of the City, he, a neophyte, went to God." 
(A. D. 359.) advenit hospes romanvs princeps in vrbem cvi 
fvit Hie primvm ivrisconsvltor amicvs — " The Roman Empe- 
ror (Constantine) came a stranger to the City, whose first friend was 
this lawyer, hic reqviescint (sic) in pace praetextatvs v! • 
ex qvestor scp et filia eivs praetextata cf — " Here rest in 
peace Praetextatus, an illustrious man, ex-quaestor of the Sacred Pal- 
ace, and his daughter Prsetextata, a most distinguished woman." 
(A. D. 486.) IVLIVS FELIX VALENTINIANVS • VC • ET (SP •) EX SILEN- 
TIARIO SACRI PALATII EX COM • CONSISTORII • COM • DOM — " Julius 
Felix Valentinianus, a man of the highest distinction and considera- 
tion^ ex-Silentiary of the Sacred Palace, ex-Count of the Consistory, 
Count of the Household Troops." (A. D. 519.) 

MAIORVM LONGA VENIENS DE STIRPE SENATOR 
AVXISTI MENTIS NOBILITATE GENVS 

IVDICIS IMPERIVM SERVANS BONITATE MAGISTRA 
CVM TIBI SVBIECTIS TV QVOQVE MILES ERAS 

VRBANOS FASCES GAVDENS TIBI ROMA PARABAT. (A. D. 533.) 
A Senator, coming from a long line of ancestors, thou didst dignify 
thy family by nobility of mind, preserving the authority of the judge 
by the power of goodness. Thou wast also a soldier with those sub- 
ject to thee, and Rome rejoicing, was preparing for thee the fasces of 
the city. 

* See chap, ii, p. 419. 

f Various titles of honour occur in these epitaphs, generally applied 
to the Consuls, occasionally to the deceased, and indicated by initial 
letters as above, and as follows : VI., Vir Illustris, " An Illustrious 
Man ; " VD., Vir Devotus, or Devotissimus, " A Devout, or Very De- 



Social and Domestic Relations. 459 

We have also such examples as scrinarivs patri- 
ciaesedis, "Secretary of the Patrician order; " primice- 
rivs monetariorvm, " Chief of the bankers ; " argen- 
tarivs, "A money dealer;" viator ad aerarivm, 
"Sergeant to the Exchequer; " praefectvs annonae, 
" Prefect of the market ; " i^estitor imperatoris, 
"Master of the imperial wardrobe ;" magister scolae 
tertiae, " Master of the Third School ; " medicvs, " A 
physician," etc. 

The great body of the Christians, however, were of 
lowly rank, many of them probably slaves, as most of 
the arts of life were carried on by that oppressed class. 
It was the sneer of Celsus that " wool-workers, leather- 
dressers, cobblers, the most illiterate of mankind, were 
zealous preachers of the Gospel ; " but Tertullian re- 
torts that every Christian craftsman can teach truths 
loftier than Plato ever knew.* The inscriptions of the 
Catacombs indicate that not many wise, not many 
mighty, joined that phalanx of heroic souls ; but they 
teach, too, that the lowliest toil may be dignified and 
ennobled by being done to the glory of God. We have 
seen represented on the tombs emblems of the occupa- 
tion of the carpenter, mason, currier, wool-comber, shoe- 
maker, vine-dresser, and fossor. We find also such 
records of trade as pistor regionis xii, " A baker of 
the Twelfth District ; " ortvlanvs, for hortulanm 
"A gardener;" patronvs corporis pastillariorvm. 
" Patron of the Corporation of Confectioners ; " primi- 

vout Man;" VC, Vir Clarissimus, FC, Femina Clarissima, " A 
Most Distinguished Man or Woman;" VH., Vir Honestus, FH. 
Femina Honesta, " An Honourable Man or Woman;" VSP., Vit 
Spectabilis, " A Very Notable Man ; " VP., Vir Perfectissimus, "A 
Most Eminent Man ; " VD., Vir Doctissimus, " A Most Learned 
Man." 
* Apol., 46. 



460 The Catacombs of Rome. 

cerivs cenariorvm, " Chief of the cooks ; " horrea- 
rivs, " A granary-keeper ; " carbonarivs, li A char- 
coal seller;" popinarivs, "A victualler;" bvbvla- 
rivs de macello, " A flesher from the shambles ; " 
capsararivs (sic) de antoninia, "A keeper of clothes 
at the Antonine Baths ; " qvadratarivs, " A stone- 
dresser ; " POLLICLA QVI (h)0RDEVM BENDIT (sic) DE 

bia noba (sic,) " Pollicla, who sells barley in the New 
Street ; " iohannes vh. olografvs (sic) propine isi- 
dori, " John, a respectable man, a book-keeper in the 
tavern of Isidorus ; " also, less reputable still, vrbanvs 
vh. tabernarivs, " Urban, a respectable man, a tav- 
ern keeper." This, however, was in the year A. D. 
584, when purity of faith and practice had greatly 
degenerated. These lowly records are preserved and 
studied with interest, when many of Rome's proudest 
monuments have crumbled away.* 

* It may not be uninteresting to notice some of the trades and oc- 
cupations mentioned in pagan epitaphs. They are of a much wider 
range than those of the Christians, indicating that the latter were a 
" peculiar people," excluded from many pursuits on account of their 
immoral or idolatrous character. Besides occupations like those 
above mentioned, we find such examples as qvadrigarivs, " A 
charioteer;" cvrsor, "The runner;" magister lvdi, "Master 
of the Games;" minister pocvli, " Toast master ;" doctor myr- 
MILON. " Teacher of the gladiators," derisor, or scvrra convivi- 
orvm, " Buffoon, or clown of the revels ; " stvpidvs gregis vr- 
banae, " Clown of the city company of mountebanks." We have 
also official titles, as nabicvlarivs cvr. corporis maris hadria- 
TICI, " Commissioner of the Hadriatic Company;" CVRATOR ALVEI 
et riparvm maris, " Curator of the river channel and sea 
banks;" mensor pvblicvs, "Public measurer;" vilicvs svpra 
hortos, " Steward over gardens ; " caesaris praesignator, " Im- 
perial Notary;" invitator, "Agent." We notice, too, others, 
as nvmvlarivs, "A banker;" medicvs ivmentarivs, "Mule 

doctor ; " MEDICVS OCVLARIS, " Oculist ; " EXONERATOR CALCA- 

rivs, "Lime dealer;" lanarivs, "Wool-worker;" pectinarivs, 
"Comb-seller;" negotians salsamentarivs et vinearivs 



Social and Domestic Relations. 461 

Very often some phrase expressive of the Christian 
character or distinguished virtues of the deceased is 
recorded in loving remembrance by his sorrowing 
friends. These testimonies are calculated to inspire a 
very high opinion of the purity, blamelessness, and no- 
bility of life of the primitive believers ; all the more 
striking from its contrast with the abominable corrup- 
tions of the pagan society by which they were sur- 
rounded. With many points of external resemblance to 
heathen inscriptions there is in these Christian epitaphs 
a world-wide difference of informing spirit. Instead of 
the pomp and pride of pagan panegyric, we have the 
celebration of the modest virtues, of lowliness, gentle- 
ness, and truth. The Christian ideal of excellence, as 
indicated by the nature of the praises bestowed on the 
departed, is shown to be utterly foreign to that of heathen 
sentiment. The following are characteristic examples : 

FELIX SANCTAE FIDEI VOCITVS (sic) IIT IN PACE 

CVIVS TANTVS AMOR ET CARITAS RETENETVR AB AMICIS IN AEVO 

QVI CVM ESSET FVIT SOLACIVS MISERICORS OMNIBVS NOTVS. 

Felix of sacred honour, when called away went in peace, whose 
love and affection are so warmly cherished by his friends ; who, when 

" Salt and wine merchant ; " cvbicvlarivs, " Keeper of the 
Couch;" grammaticvs lectorqve, "Grammarian and reader;" 
comparator mercis svtoriae, "Shoemaker's furnisher;" fvna- 
rivs, "Rope maker;" negotiator lentic • e't castreniar • " A 
Camp Grocer and Sutler ; " redemptor ab aere, " Contractor in 
Brass;" faber ferrarivs, "Iron Worker;" negotiator lvg- 
dvnensis artis, " A Dealer in Lyons wares," not silks, as the phrase 
would now mean, but pottery ; exactor tribvtorvm, "Tax gath- 
erer;" and the fanaticvs in the temple of Isis, i. e., one hired 
to stimulate the zeal of the votaries by wild and frantic gestures, 
attributed to the inspiration of the deity. We find also epitaphs 
of actors, dancers, pantomimists, of one of whom, a young girl, it is 
said, cvivs in octava lascivia svrgere messe coeperat — a 
horrible circumstance to mention on her tomb. 



4C2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

he was in life was known to all for sympathy with the afflicted and 
compassion toward the distressed. 

IN SIMPLICITATE VIXIT AMICVS PAVPERVM INNOCEN- 
TIVM MISERICORS SPECTABILIS ET PENITENS " He lived 

in simplicity, a friend of the poor, compassionate to the 
innocent, a man of consideration and penitent." in- 

FANTIAE AETAS VIRGINITATIS INTEGRITAS MORVM GRA- 
VITAS FIDEI ET REVERENTIAE DISCIPLINA " Of youthful 

age, of spotless maidenhood, of grave manners, well 
disciplined in faith and reverence." 

More frequent than any other expression was the 
phrase, common also to pagan epitaphs, bene merenti, 
— " To, the well-deserving," generally indicated by the 
letters B. m. But many others of a more distinctively 
Christian character occur, as, servvs dei, famvlvs dei, 
" Servant of God ; " AOYAOC niCTOC 0EOY, " Faithful 
Servant of God;" Anoc ■ 9E0CEBEC, "A holy wor- 
shipper of God;" TAYKEPAN ahan, "An amiable and 
holy person;" sanctissimvs, "A most holy person; " 
anima dvlcis et innocens, " Sweet and innocent 
soul ; " amicvs omnivm, " Friend of all men ; " IIACI- 
$IA0C KAI OYAENI EXGPOC, " Friend of all and enemy 
of none ; " semper sine cvlpa, " Ever without fault ; " 
amator pavpervm, U A lover of the poor;" homo 
bonvs, "A good man; " stvdiosvs, " Zealous; " spir- 
ito sancto, " To a holy soul ; " innocentissimvs, 
" A most innocent person ; " and the like. Others are 
of a more general character, as honestes recorda- 
tiones {sic) vir, " A man worthy to be remembered 
with honour ; " AEIMNHCTOC, " Ever to be remem- 
bered ; " OEO*iAECTATOC, " The most devout or God- 
loving;" mire {sic) sapientiae, "Of wonderful 
wisdom;" lavdabilis femina, "A praiseworthy 
woman ; " conivx dignissima, " A most worthy wife ; " 



Social and Domestic Relations. 463 

CASTISSIMAE ADQVE PVDICISS1MAE FEMINAE, " To a tllOSt 

chaste and modest woman ; " mirae pvlchritvdinis 
atqve idoneitatis, " Of wonderful beauty and abil- 
ity ; " mirae integritatis et fidei atqve constan- 
tiae, " Of wonderful integrity, faith, and steadfast- 
ness ; " sapiens pivs atqve benignvs, " Wise, pious, 
and kind ; " homo fidei et integritatis opinionis 

BONAE MENTIS INTEGRAE AMICVS AMICORVM, " A man 

of sound faith and integrity, of good judgment, of a 
sound mind, a friend of his friends ; " svabis {sic) 
semperqve pvdica vera loqvens, " Agreeable and 
ever modest, speaking the truth ; " bonitatis eximiae 

ET MIRAE VERECVNDIAE ET VLTRA AETATEM SAPI- 

entiae, " Of remarkable goodness and wonderful 
modesty, and wise beyond her years;" anima dvlcis, 
innocva {sic) sapiens et pvlchra, " A sweet spirit, 
guileless, wise, beautiful; " amatrix pavperorvm {sic) 
et operaria, " A lover of the poor, and attentive to her 
work ; " fidelis in xpo eivs mandata servans mar- 
tyrvm obseqviis devota, " Faithful in Christ, keep- 
ing his commands, devoted in. attention to the mar- 
tyrs ; " pvrvs amicitiae cvltor servator honesti 
eloqvio miseros pietate ivvans, "A guileless pre- 
server of friendship and observer of honour, helping 
the wretched by words and by affectionate care ; " te 

CARVM SVVOLES TE FIXVM SENSIT AMICVS TE LEVITAS 

torvvm dvlcem cognovit honestvs, "Thee thy sor. 
felt beloved, thy friend attached, thee the frivolous 
found stern, but the upright knew to be gentle ; '" 
ETTEPIIE H TQN MOTCQN CTNTPO*OC BIQCACA AI1AOC 
OCIQC KAI AMEMlITftC, " Euterpe, a companion of the 
Muses, having lived simply, piously, and irreproach- 
ably." The last is from Sicily, the others are from 
Rome. Other ..examples will be given in treating the 



464 The Catacombs of Rome. 

domestic and ecclesiastical relations of the primitive 
Christians. 

In these memorials of the departed we have a strik- 
ing portraiture of the Christian graces and domestic 
virtues of the early believers. The existence of such a 
pure and blameless community in a base and sensual 
age is one of the noblest chapters in the history of the 
race. It was also an eloquent protest, a living testi- 
mony against the abominations of pagan society and 
the manifold corruptions which were in the world 
through lust. From these the Christian community 
recoiled with utter abhorrence, and, in the early centu- 
ries, lived unspotted amid surrounding pollution.* 

Although some of the pagan epitaphs betray a light 
and sportive epicurean vein even in the solemn presence 
of death, yet others indicate an appreciation of the do- 
mestic and civic virtues, as in the following example : 

M1RAE BONITATIS ADQVE INIMITABILIS SANCTITATIS TO- 
TIVS CASTITATIS RARI EXEMPLI FEMINA CASTE BONE BITE 
ET PIETOSE (sic) IN OMNIBVS . . . VIXIT SINE LESIONE 
ANIMI MEI MECVM ANNOS XV. FILIOS AVTEM PROCREA- 

vit vii — " Of wonderful goodness and inimitable piety, 
of entire modesty, a woman of rare example, of a 
chaste, virtuous, and pious life in all things. She lived 
with me without any annoyance of my mind fifteen 
years, and bore me seven children." 

Often they are expressed with admirable brevity, as, 

TANTIS VIRTVTIBVS NVLLVM PAR ELOGIVM, " Of SO great 

virtue there is no equal praise ; " moribvs pariter et 

* Tertullian bases his apology for the Christians on the blameless- 
ness of their character, refutes the accusations against them, and 
challenges proof. The unworthy members of the community, he 
says, are only as moles or freckles on the body, or as a fleecy cloud 
on a sunny sky, affecting not its general character. — Ad Nationes, 5. 



Sooial and Domestic Relations. 465 

DISCIPLINA CAETERIS FEMINIS EXEMPLVM, " She was 

equally in manners and education an example to other 
women ; " de cvivs pvdore nemo dicere potvit, 
" Against whose modesty no one could say aught;"* 
and this noble testimony to a magistrate, qvid esset 

MALEDICERE NESCHT NON TANQVAM, " What it Was tO 

speak evil he did not even know." 

But it is especially in the domestic relations that the 
tender and pure affections of the Christians are most 
beautifully exhibited. His heart must be callous indeed, 
who can read without emotion these humble records of 
love and sorrow, which have survived so many of the 
proudest monuments of antiquity. In the hour of tear- 
ful parting from the dearly loved, the richest affections 
of the soul are breathed forth, as the flower when 
crushed exhales its sweetest fragrance. These rude in- 
scriptions speak to our hearts with a power and pathos 
all their own. Their mute eloquence sweeps down the 
centuries, and touches chords in every soul that thrill 
with keenest sympathy. The far severed ages are 
linked together by the tale of death and sorrow — old as 
humanity yet ever new. The bleaching skeletons in 
their stony beds seem clothed again with human flesh 
and warm with living love. The beauty and tenderness 
of Christian family life is vividly exhibited — the hallow- 
ing influence of religion making earthly love the type 
of love eternal in the skies. The tie that knits fond 
hearts together becomes the stronger as death smites at 
it in vain. The language of affection becomes more 
fervent as the barrier of the grave is interposed. 

* Compare, in Propertius' elegy on Cornelia, the line 
Viximus insignes inter utramque facem. 

" I lived spotless from the kindling of my marriage torch to that 
which lit my funeral pyre." 

30 



-466 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Especially is this the case when sorrowing parents 
mingle their tears at the tiny loculus of their babe, con- 
signed to earth's cold keeping from their loving arms 
— their bud of promise blighted, and hope's blossom 
withered to bloom only in the skies. The warmest 
expressions of endearment are lavished on the tombs 
of little children. Thus we have such tender epithets 
as dvlcior melle, " Sweeter than honey ; " TAYKYTE- 
POC <S>S2TOC KAI ZS2HC, " Sweeter than light and life ; " 
agnellvs dei, " God's little lamb ; " palvmbvlvs sine 
felle, " Little dove without gall ; " parvvlvs inno- 
cens, "Little innocent; " meae deliciae, "My delight;" 
dvlcissimvs carissimvs, " Most sweet, most dear ; " 
EIPHNH 201 <1>0PT0YNATH eYTATPI TAYKYTATH, " Peace 
to thee, O Fortunata, our very sweet child ; " innocen- 
tissimo pavlo qvi • vix • m ; x • d • xnii, " To the most 
innocent Paul, who lived ten months, fourteen days ; " 

ANIMA DVLCIS INNOCVA SAPIENS ET PVLCHRA, " A Sweet 

spirit, guileless, wise, and beautiful," (a child aged three 
years) ; mirae innocentiae ac sapientiae pvero, 
" A boy of wonderful innocence and intelligence," (aged 
four years.) Sometimes a reference is made to the 
brief sojourn of the little pilgrim to life's shores, as 
parvm stetit apvd nos, " He stayed but a short time 
with us." 

The following is from Sicily : ENGAAE KITE (sic) EN 
EIPHNH MAPIA EZHCEN ETH MIKPON nPOC B (KAI) ETE- 
AElflGH, " Here lies Mary in peace : she lived a little 
more than two years (and) finished her course." Of an- 
other it is said, that she died inter manvs parentvm, 
" In the arms of her parents." In an epitaph at Naples 
is the exquisite utterance of a sorrowing heart : in solis 
tv mihi tvrba loos, "In lonely places thou art crowds 
to me." Generally, however, the grief of the parents is 



Social and Domestic Relations. 467 

speechless, and we read merely, parentes fecervnt 
filiae, " The parents made (this tomb) for their child," 
or perhaps, mater incomparabili filiae pecit, " The 
mother made this for her incomparable daughter." 

Sometimes the praise of the deceased is more elabo- 
rate, as in the following, which is probably of late date ; 

DALMATIO FILIO DVLCISSIMO TOTIVS INGENIOSITATIS AC 
SAPIENTIAE PVERO QVEM PLENIS SEPTEM ANNIS PER 
FRVI PATRI INFELICI NON LICVIT QVI STVDENS LITTERAS 
GRAECAS NON . MONSTRATAS STB I LATINAS " To Dal- 

matius, a very sweet son, of the utmost genius and wis- 
dom, whose unhappy father was not permitted to enjoy 
him for seven full years, who, while studying the Greek 
language, acquired Latin without being taught."* 

Sometimes a natural expression of sorrow occurs, as 
parentes dolentes, " The parents grieving;" pater 
infelix, " The unhappy father ; " contra votvm, 
" Regretfully; " parentes miseri fvnebris acervitate 
(sic) percvssi titvlvm erigi ivsservnt, " The wretched 
parents, smitten by the bitterness of her death, com- 
manded this tablet to be set up," (a. d. 464;) erepta 
ex ocvlis genitoris, " Snatched from the eyes of her 
parent ; " qvis non dolvit aetati tvae piasqve la- 

CRIMAS FVDIT IN TE SPES FVTVRA EXPECTABATVR PER 
TE PER TE GLORIA PERENNIS CELERINE FILI, FIDELIS 
QVIESCIS IN PACE QVI VIXIT ANN. I. M. VIII — " Who did 

not grieve for thy (immature) age and pour affection- 
ate tears ? In thee was future hope. Through thee, 
through thee, O son Celerinus, perennial glory was ex- 
pected. Faithful one, thou restest in peace, who lived 
one year eight months," (A. D. 381). 

In the following, of later date, the expressions of 
grief are more elaborate and artificial, and indicate the 
* The text and translation are as given by Burgon. 



468 The Catacombs of Rome. 

influence of pagan thought and diction, especially in 
the last line : 

QVOD DVLCES NATI QVOD CARA PIGNORA PRAESTANT 
ARSTVLIT ATRA DIES ET FVNERE MERSIT ACERVO 
HAEC MATER ET GENITOR CONSCRIBVNT CARMINA BVSTO 
QVO LEGENTI SIMVL REDEAT SVB CORDE FIGVRA 
ET SICCATA SAEPE MADESCANT LVMINA FLETV 
SIC MEDICATVR AMOR NEC CVRANT CARMINA MANES. 
"What sweet children, what dear pledges promise, a dire day 
has borne away, and plunged in bitter death. The father and mother, 
together, write these verses on the tomb, in order that to any one 
reading, the image may at once return to the soul, and the eyes, long 
dry, may moisten with tears. Thus love administers relief, nor do 
the spirits care for songs." 

No less fervent expressions of affection are employed 
toward their adult offspring by surviving parents. In- 
deed they are, if possible, still more intense, as if wrung 
from the bleeding heart by grief for the fallen column 
of the house — the broken staff of their declining years. 
In the following, from the Lapidarian gallery, the epi- 
thets of endearment are lavishly heaped upon the be- 
loved object : adsertori filio karo dvlci innoco 

ET INCOMPARABILI QVI VIXIT ANNIS XVII • M • VII • DIEBVS 

viii • pater et mater fecer(vnt) — " To Adsertor, 
our dear, sweet, guileless, and incomparable son, who 
lived seventeen years, seven months, eight days. His 
father and mother made this." 

Of similar character are the following : pavla cla- 
rissima faemina dvlcis benigna gratiosa filia — 
" Paula, an illustrious woman, a sweet, kind, and gra- 
cious daughter; " nimivm cito decidisti constantia 
mirvm pvlchritvdinis atqve idoneitatis — "Too 
soon hast thou fallen, Constantia, wonderful (example) 
of beauty and ability." 

Similar evidences of parental affection and grief oc- 
cur in pagan inscriptions, though often overshadowed 



Social and Domestic Relations. 469 

by a deep and dark despair. Thus we read such tender 
epithets of little children as filiae dvlcissimae iam 
garrvlae bimvlae nondvm — " To a very sweet daugh- 
ter now prattling, not yet two little years of age ; " 
obseqventissimae filiae — "To a most obedient daugh- 
ter ; " MATER MOERENS FILIO EX QVO NIHIL VNQVAM DO- 

lvit nisi cvm is non fvit — " The grieving mother to her 
son, from whom she never received any pain but when he 
was not," — that is, when he died ; parvae bvsta pvellae 

THREPTVS PATER FECIT QVIS NON VVLTVM RIGAT LACRI- 
MIS MAERORE COACTVS QVIS NON TRISTITIAM PECTORE 

concipit — " Her foster-father made this tomb of a little 
girl. Who does not moisten his face with tears, compelled 
by grief? Who does not cherish sorrow in his bosom ? ' 

ADOLESCENTVLAE DVLCISSIMAE PATER PIISSIMVS ET IN- 

felicissimvs fecit — " To a most sweet young maiden, 
her most affectionate and unhappy father gave this 
tomb ; " flevit et assidvo maestvs vterqve parens 
— " Both the sorrowful parents wept incessantly." 

We have also such examples as, mater ad lvctvm et 
gemitvm relicta evm lacrimis et opobalsamo vdvm 
hoc sepvlchro condidit — " His mother, left to sorrow 
and groaning, buried him, moist with tears and balsam, 
in this tomb ; " qvae ob desiderivm fili svi piissimi 

VIVERE ABOMINAVIT ET POST DIES XV FATI EIVS ANIMO 

despondit — " Who, on account of her yearning for her 
most affectionate son, hated life, and, fifteen days after 
his death, also died." 

Sometimes in their passionate grief, the heathen pa- 
rents reproach themselves for surviving their children, 
as in the following. 

CRVDELIS IMPIA MATER CARIS SVIS DVLCISSIMIS . . . INFELICISSIMA 
MATER QVI {sic) VIDIT FVNVS SVVM CRVDELISSIMVM QVAE SI DE\'M 
PROPITIVM HABVISSET HOC DEBVERA (sic)'EOS PA.TI. 



47° The Catacombs of Rome. 

The cruel, impious mother, to her dear, most sweet children. The 
most unhappy mother, who saw (in theirs) her own most cruel death 
who, if she had had a propitious deity, ought to have suffered this for 
them — (that is, have died in their stead.) 

HIC IACET EXTINCTVS CRVDELI FVNERE NATVS 
VLTIMA VIVENDI QVI MIHI CAVSA FVIT, 

Here lies, destroyed by cruel fate, a son, who was my only reason 
for living. 

Often the expressions in Christian epitaphs of filial 
affection to deceased parents are exceedingly tender 
and beautiful, as for example : patri dvlcissimo bene- 
merenti in pace — " To our sweetest father, well-deserv- 
ing, in peace," (A. D. 356) ; tigriti benemerenti. . . . 
filivs FECI matri — " To the well-deserving Tigris. . . . 
I, her son, made this for my mother," (A. D. 393 ;) hoc 

TVMVLVM PATRIS FILIVS FIERI VOLVIT CAVSA AMORIS 

paterni recordationis — "This tomb of his father 
the son wished to be made on account of his remem- 
brance of paternal affection ; " te parens soboles 

CONIVNXQVE FIDELIS TE MIXTIS LACRIMIS LVGET AMA- 

ta domvs — "Thee thy parent, thy offspring, thy faithful 
consort, thee a loved home, with mingled tears, lament," 
(A. D. 533.) 

HEV MEMORANDE PATER LONGI MIHI CAVSA DOLORIS 
OPTASTI IN MANIBVS FILIORVM SAEPE TVORVM 
SVMERE ET AMPLEXV DVLCI TENVARE NEPOTVM. 
ADFVIT HIS VOTIS EXCELSI GRATIA CHRISTI 
FELIX VITA FVIT FELIX ET TRANSITVS IPSE. (A. D. 534.) 

Alas, O father, ever to be remembered, cause of long grief to me 
thou didst often desire to die in the arms of thy children, to gentl) 
pass away in the sweet embrace of thy offspring. These wishes the 
grace of the exalted Christ fulfilled. Happy was thy life, and happ> 
also thy passing away. 

We find also the epitaphs of foster-parents and 
adopted children, showing the exercise, under the infiu- 



Social and Domestic Relations. 471 

ence of Christian sentiment, of the beautiful charity of 
rescuing foundlings and orphans* from poverty, infamy, 
or death. The following example is of date A. D. 
392 : 

PERPETVAM SEDEM NVTRITOR POSSIDES IPSE 
HIC MERITVS FINEM MAGNIS DEFVNCTE PERICLIS 
HIC REQVIEM FELIX SVMIS COGENTIBVS ANNIS 
HIC POSITVS PAPASANTIMIO QVI VIXIT ANNIS LXX. 

" You yourself who reared (us) now occupy a lasting resting-place. 
Here you have reached the end that you deserved, of a course fraught 
with great perils. Here, in happiness, you take the repose that age 
compels. Here is laid foster-father Antimio, who lived seventy 
years." f 

The conjugal affections especially have their beauti- 
ful and tender commemoration. The mutual love of 
husband and wife finds in these inscriptions affecting 
record, which attests the happiness of the marriage re- 
lation among the primitive Christians. Frequently the 
bereaved husband recounts with grateful recollection 
the fact that his wedded life was one of perfect har- 

* Dr. Northcote indeed asserts that " there are actually more in- 
stances of alumni among the sepulchral inscriptions of the Christians 
than among the infinitely more numerous sepulchral inscriptions of 
the pagans." (Page 136.) The accompanying Greek examples are 
characteristic of the class : IIPOKAH ePEIITH, " To Procla, an 
adopted daughter ; " IIETPOC ePEIITOC TATKTTATOC EN GEO, 
" Peter, a most sweet adopted son, in God." 

The titles mamma and tata, sometimes in their diminutive forms 
mamula and tatula, equivalent to our mamma and papa, occur in 
Christian and pagan epitaphs. 

f'The expression papasantimio was erroneously translated "most 
holy Pope " by Paoli and Fea, but their mistake was long since pointed 
out. Maitland, and Bishop Kip who followed him, fell into the same 
error. De Rossi severely criticises the former as " most ignorant of 
the whole controversy, known even to blear-eyed and barbers." — Totius 
controversial, vel lippis ac tonsoribus notse, ignarissimus. — hiscrip. 
Aatiq., p. 177. The translation above given is that of Dr. McCaul. 



47 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

mony, unmarred by a single jar or discord — semper 

CONCORDES SINE VLLA QVERELA. 

The posthumous praise of these Christian matrons 
recalls the inspired portraiture of the virtuous woman 
of Scripture. The intensity of conjugal grief is shown 
by the expressions, male fractvs conivx — " The sore 
broken husband; " and gemitv tristi lacrimis deflet 
— " He bewails in tears with bitter lamentation." Often 
occurs the phrase incomparabilis conivx — " Incom- 
parable wife," frequently with the addition, optimae 
memoriae — "Of most excellent memory." Sometimes 
we find the tender expression, with such depth of mean- 
ing in its simple words, qvi amavit me — " Who loved 
me ; " also the phrase, carvs svis — " Dear to his friends ;" 
or, perdvlcissimo conivgi svo — inadequately ren- 
dered, "To her most dearest husband." The utterance 
of a grief into the secret of which none can enter but 
those who have known its bitterness, is often extremely 
pathetic. 

The spirit of these inscriptions will be best seen in 
the concrete. The following are characteristic exam- 
ples : DEO FIDELIS DVLCIS MARITO NVTRIX FAMILIAE 
HVMILIS CVNCTIS AMATRIX PAVPERVM " Faithful tO 

God, endeared to her husband, the nurse of her fam- 
ily, humble to all, a lover of the poor;" bixit mecvm 

ANNIS XXII • MENS • IX • DIES V IN QVIBVS SEMPER MIHI 

bene fvit cvm illa — " She lived with me for twenty-two 
years, nine months, five days, during which time it ever 
went well with me in her society; " conivge venerande 
bone innocva florentia digna pia amabilis pvdica 
(sic) — " To my wife Florentia, deserving of honour, 
good, guileless, worthy, pious, amiable, modest." 

HIC REQVIESCIT IN PACE TERTVRA CF DVLCIS PETRONII CONIVX 
DEO SERVIENS VNICAE FIDEI AM1CA PACIS CASTIS MORIBVS ORNATA 



Social and Domestic Relations. 473 

COMMVNIS FIDELIBVS AMICIS FAMILIAE GRATA NVTRIX NATORVM 
ET NVMQVAM AMARA MARITO. 

" Here reposes in peace Tertura, an illustrious woman, the sweet 
wife of Petronius, serving God, of matchless faith, a friend of peace, 
adorned with modest manners, affable toward the faithful friends of 
her family, a loving nurse of her children, and never bitter to her 
husband." 

HIC MIHI SEMPER DOLOR ERIT IN AEVO 

ET TVTM BENERABILEM VVLTVM FVAT VIDERE SOPORE 

CONIVNX ALBANAQVE MIHI SEMPER CASTA PVDICA 

RELICTVM ME TVO GREMIO QVEROR 

QTOD MIHI SANCTVM TE DEDERAT DIVINITVS AVCTOR. 

" This grief will always weigh upon me. May it be granted me to 
behold in sleep your revered countenance. My wife Albana, always 
chaste and modest. I "grieve over the loss of your support, whom our 
divine author had given to me as a sacred (boon.)" 

In the following a disconsolate husband mourns the 
wife of his youth with the pleasing illusion that such love 
as theirs the world had never known before : domni- 

NAE INNOCENTISSIMAE ET DVLCISSIMAE CONIVGI QVAE 
VIXIT ANN • XVI • M • IIII • ET FVIT MARITATA • ANN DVOBVS 
. M • IIII • D • Villi CVM QVA NON LICVIT FVISSE PROPTER 
CAVSAS PEREGRINATIONIS NISI • MENSIB • VI • QVO • TEM- 
PORE • VT EGO SENSI ET EXHIBVI AMOREM MEVM MVLLIS 

valii (sic) sic delixervnt — " To Domnina, my most 
guileless and sweet wife, who lived sixteen years and 
four months, and was married two years, four months, 
and nine days ; with whom I was not able to live on 
account of my travelling more than six months : during 
this period as I felt and showed my affection no others 
ever loved." 

* This example and translation are from Maitland. It will be ob- 
served that Domnina must have been married before her fourteenth 
birthday. Several notices of early marriages occur, as e. g. 

VISCILIVS NICENI • COSTAE • SVAE QVAE FVIT- 
ANNOR • P • M • XXXI • EX QVIBVS DVRABIT • MECVM ANNOS XV 

' Viscilius to Nice, his rib, who was of thirty-one years (of age) more 



474 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Similar expressions of affection are applied by bereaved 
wives to their deceased husbands. In the following a 
widowed heart dwells with fond complacency on the 
thought that no rankling recollection of estranged regard 
embitters her remembrance of the lost : agrippina 

FECIT • DVLCISSIMO SVO MARITO CVM QVEM VIXIT SINE 

lesione animi • annos in et m • x. — " Agrippina made 
this to her very sweet husband, with whom she lived, 
without jarring, three years and ten months." Of sim- 
ilar import is this also : digno meritoqve ivgali meo 

TETTIO FILICISSIMO DIACONO • MARCIA DECENTIA DVLCIS- 
SIMO MIHI DIEM DEPOSITIONIS LAPIDEMQVE DESCRIPSI • 

merito vixit annvs non minvs lxx — " To my husband, 
Tettius Felicissimus, worthy and deserving, a deacon. 
I, Marcia Decentia, inscribed this stone to him (who 
was) most sweet to me, on the day of his burial. He 
lived in honour not less than seventy years." 

or less, of which she passed with me fifteen years." The use of costa 
ioxtixor'xs, doubtless an allusion to Genesis ii, 21. We read also of 
Felicissima, qvae vixit annvs lx • qvae fecit cvm viro svo an- 
nvs xlv — " Who lived sixty years, who passed with her husband 
forty-five years;" and of Januaria, L • f-qvae vixit pl-m ■ ann • 
xxvm • C • maritv • FEC ANN xv • m • xi • d • x — " A praiseworthy wom- 
an, who lived twenty-eight years, more or less ; she passed with her 
husband fifteen years, eleven months, ten days." She was, therefore, 
married when about twelve years of age. The earliest date of mar- 
ilage we have noticed is the following: constantiae benemerenti 

BERGINIVS CASTAE CONPARAE • CVM QVA • FECIT ANNIS VIII. QVE VICSIT 

(sic) ANNIS xviii • menses vim • dies xvii. — " Virginius, to the well-de- 
serving Constantia, his chaste consort, with whom he lived eight years, 
who lived eighteen years, nine months, seventeen days." She was 
less than eleven years old when married. It must be borne in mind, 
however, that marriage still occurs at a very early age in these south- 
ern latitudes, as both sexes attain nubile years much sooner than in 
northern climates. But this precocious maturity is followed, especially 
in females, by a premature decline. Like the brilliant flowers of their 
own fervid clime, they early bloom and quickly fade. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 475 

Similar language of mingled love and grief occurs in 
pagan inscriptions, but without the chastening influence 
of Christian resignation. The domestic life of the Ro- 
mans, especially in the days of republican simplicity, 
seems to have been remarkably free from discord or 
strife. Thus we find frequent record of over half a 
century passed in marriage, sine ivrgio, sine aemv- 
latione, sine dissidio, sine qverela — " Without con- 
tention, without emulation, without dissension, with- 
out strife." With ceaseless iteration the virtues of 
the deceased are lovingly recorded, as in the examples 
which follow : conivgem fidelissimam — " Most faithful 
wife ; " optima domina sanctissim a — " Best and most re- 
vered lady ; " maritae piissimae dvlcissimae rarissi 
mae — " To a most pious and sweet wife of rarest excel- 
lence ; " OPTIMA ET pvlcherrima lanifica pia pvdica 
casta domeseda — " Best and most beautiful, a spinner 
of wool, pious, modest, chaste, home-abiding;" vxori 
obseqventissimae— " To a most obedient (or obsequi- 
ous) wife ; " T. FL. CAPITO CONIVGI c astissimae piissimae 

ET DE SE OPTIME MERITAE DE QVA NVLLVM DOLOREM NISI 

acerbissimae mortis eivs acceperat — " Titus Flavius 
Capito, to his most chaste and pious wife, deserving 
well of him, from whom he received no cause of grief, 
except that of her most bitter death ; " tempivs her- 

MEROS CONIVGI CARISSIMAE . . . CVIVS DESIDERIO IVRA- 
TVS EST SE POST EAM VXOREM NON HABITVRVM " Tem- 

pius Hermeros, to his most dear spouse, on account of 
his love for whom he swore that he would have no 
other wife." Once we meet the strange remark by a 
husband of his wife, cvivs in die mortis gratias max- 
imas egi apvd deos et apvd homines — " On the day of 
whose death I gave the greatest thanks to gods and men." 
It was probably on account of her release from suffering 



476 The Catacombs of Rome. 

In the accompanying epitaph a bereaved widow la- 
ments her irreparable loss: conivgi desideratissimo 

. . . NVNC NEQVE TE VIDEO NEC AMOR SATIATVR AMAN- 
TIS ET CONIVX MISERA FINEM DEPOSCO DOLORI " To 

•my most deeply regretted husband . . . For neither do 
I now see thee, nor is the affection of thy loving spouse 
satisfied ; and I, a miserable wife, implore an end of my 
sorrow." 

Such examples of conjugal affection recall to mind 
the immortal love of Alcestis in the Greek myth, dying 
for her bosom's lord; and of Arria, in Roman story, re- 
fusing to survive her husband, and having plunged the 
dagger into her own breast, with dying smile exclaim- 
ing, Pcete,non dolet — " It hurts not, my Psetus." * 

Another interesting class of Christian inscriptions 
are those commemorating fraternal affection. The 
following are typical examples : ioviano karissimo 
fecit {sic) fratres pientissimae {sic) — " To dearest 
Jovianus, his most affectionate brothers made this ; " 
TQ MAKAPIQ iiataq hataaaoc AAEA*02 — " To the 
blessed Paul, his brother Hedulalos." 

In the accompanying poetical tribute to a sister the 
melancholy consolation of mourning the lost is beauti- 
fully referred to : 

SVME SOROR CARMEN SOLATIA TRISTA (sic) FRATRIS 
QVI SOLVS GEMITV HEC (sic) TIBI VERBA DEDIT 

QUAE TEGITVR TVMVLO SI VIS COGNOSCERE LECTOR 
SVBLIMES GESSIT SANGVINIS HAEC TITVLOS 

MORIBVS HEC CRISTVM SEMPER COMITATA SVPERSTES 
QVEM POST FATA SIBI CREDIDIT ESSE DVCEM. 

Sister, take these verses, the sad comfort of your brother, who, in 
lonely lamentation, has given these words to you. Reader, if you 

* We have also illustrations of the fatal facility of divorce under 
the Empire, and of the domestic strife and crime resulting therefrom. 
In the following epitaph a discarded wife laments the murder of her 



Social and Domestic Relations. 477 

desire to know who is covered by this tomb, she bore names which 
told her high descent. She, when alive, always followed, in her con- 
duct, Christ, who she believed would be her guide after death. 

Frequently members of the same family were buried 
in the same grave — lovely and pleasant in their lives, 
and in their death not divided. Thus we read of a 
brother and sister who died in one day, and were buried 
together — vna diemortvi et pariter tvmvlatisvnt; 
of a certain Antigonus who occupied the same tomb 
with his sister — locvm habet cvm sore (sic) sva ; and 
of a mother who shared her daughter's grave — felicia 
cvm filia in pace ; also of Claudia and Julia, who had 
secured their places by the side of their sweet friend 
Calpurnia. The same custom sometimes obtains in 
pagan sepulture, as indicated by the following epitaph 
of a husband and wife who, not to be divorced even in 
death, mingled their ashes in one urn : 

parato hospitio cara ivngvnt corpora 
haec rvrsvm nostrae sed perpetvae nvptiae. 
In a prepared rest they join their dear bodies. These are our sec- 
ond but our perpetual nuptials.* 

Sometimes the funeral tablet was erected by the hand 
of friendship, probably when there were none of kin to 

child by the usurper of her rights : mater filio piissimo misera 
et IN LVCTV eternali veneficio novercae — " To her most affec- 
tionate son, the wretched mother, plunged in perpetual grief by the 
poison of his step-mother, (raised this slab.) " There is also a curious 
inscription written jointly by two living husbands to the same de- 
ceased wife, in which she is designated, conivx bene merenta (sic) — 
" A well-deserving consort." Another slab is dedicated to both the 
wife and the concubine — vxori et concvbinae — of a R.oman lictor 
* In like manner, with more tender sentiment than we would have 
expected in the stolid monarch, George II. was, in accordance with 
his own request, laid in death beside his good and gentle consort long 
deceased, and the partition between them removed, " that their dust 
might blend together." 



478 The Catacombs of Rome. 

pay this last sad tribute of affection. De Rossi thinks 
that which follows one of the most ancient in Rome : 

DORMITIONI T. FLA. EVTYCHIO. HVNC LOCVM DONABIT 
M. ORBIVS AMICVS KARISSIMVS KARE BALE — " As a resting 

place for Titus Flavius Eutychius, his dearest friend, 
Marcus Orbius, gave this spot. Farewell, beloved." One 
fair friend thus commemorates the loss of another : 

AELIA VICTORINA POSVIT AVRELIAEPROBAE — " ^Elia Vic- 

torina erected this stone to Aurelia Proba." We find also 
such expressions as, " Best friend," " Dear and faithful 
companion," " Constant in love and truth." Sometimes a 
lowly servant or freedman records a master's virtues, as 
in the epitaph of Gordianus, erected by his handmaid 
Theophila — Y9*HAA ANCHAAA *ECIT(«V); and that of 
Prosenes, which Ampelius, his freedman, wrote — scrip- 
sit ampelivs lib. Another was buried by her sweet 
and holy nurse in Christ— 9PEITTEIP AN TATKEPHNAriAN 
EN XPfl. 

The duration of sickness, or cause of death, is some- 
times, though very rarely, mentioned in Christian in- 
scriptions. Thus we have such particulars as perit in 
dies v—" He died in five days ; " ENOCHCEN HMEPAC IB 
— "He was ill twelve days." A pagan epitaph com- 
plains of the death of the deceased by magical incanta- 
tions : CARMINIBVS DEFIXA IACVIT PER TEMPORA MVTA 
VT EIVS SPIRITVS VI EXTORQVERETVR QVAM NATVRAE 

redderetvr — " Overcome by charms she lay at times 
dumb, so that her spirit was torn from her by force 
rather than given back to nature." Another was 
snatched away while she too sedulously nursed a sick 
husband — dvm fovit nimia sedvlitate virvm. An- 
other died of internal burnings, which medical skill 
was powerless to cope with — ardentes intvs vin- 
cere qvos medicae non potvere manvs. Of an- 



Social and Domestic Relations. 479 

other we read that aFter long and various infirmities 
she is freed from human things — post longas et 

VARIAS INFIRMITATES HVMANIS REBVS EXEMPTA EST.* 

Like this is the expression in a Christian epitaph — post 

VARIAS CVRAS POST LONGAE MVNERA VITAE "After 

various cares, after the duties of a long life." 

The same spirit which thus commemorated the de- 
parted would lead also to the decoration of their sepul- 
chres with pious frescoes or elaborate sculpture, limned 
or carved often as a last offering of love by the hand 
of affection or of friendship — now for fifteen centuries 
kindred dust with that whose resting-place it so fondly 
sought to beautify. 

We should do scant justice, however, to the blameless 
character, simple dignity, and moral purity of the prim- 
itive Christians, as indicated in these posthumous 
remains, if we forgot the thoroughly effete and corrupt 
society by which they were surrounded. It would seem 
almost impossible for the Christian graces to grow in 
such a fetid atmosphere. Like the snow-white lily 
springing in virgin purity from the muddy ooze, they are 
more lovely by contrast with the surrounding pollutions. 
Like flowers that deck a sepulchre, breathing their fra- 
grance amid scenes of corruption and death, are these 
holy characters, fragrant with the breath of heaven 
amid the social rottenness and moral death of their foul 
environment. 

It is difficult to imagine, and impossible to portray, 
the abominable pollutions of the times. " Society," 
says Gibbon, " was a rotting, aimless chaos of sensuality." 
It was a boiling Acheron of seething passions, unhal- 
lowed lusts, and tiger thirst for blood, such as never 
provoked the wrath of heaven since God drowned the 

* Several of these examples are translated from Kenrick. 



480 The Catacombs of Rome. 

world with water, or destroyed the Cities of the Plain 
by fire. Only those who have visited the secret muse- 
um of Naples, or that house which no woman may 
enter at Pompeii, and whose paintings no pen may de- 
scribe ; or who are familiar with the scathing denuncia- 
tions of popular vices by the Roman satirists and moral- 
ists and by the Christian Fathers, can conceive the 
appalling depravity of the age and nation. St. Paul, in 
his epistle to the church among this very people, hints 
at some features of their exceeding wickedness. It 
was a shame even to speak of the things which were 
done by them, but which gifted poets employed their 
wit to celebrate. A brutalized monster was deified as 
God, received divine homage,* and beheld all the world 
at his feet and the nations tremble at his nod, while the 
multitude wallowed in a sty of sensuality.f 

Christianity was to be the new Hercules to cleanse 
this worse than Augean pollution. The pure morals 
and holy lives of the believers were a perpetual testi- 
mony against abounding iniquity, and a living proof of 
the regenerating power and transforming grace of God. 
For they themselves, as one of their apologists asserts, 
" had been reclaimed from ten thousand vices." % And 
the Apostle, describing some of the vilest characters, 
exclaims, " Such were some of you, but ye are washed, 
ye are sanctified." They recoiled with the utmost ab- 
horrence from the pollutions of the age, and became 

* While yet alive, Domitian was called, Our Lord and God — Dom - 
inus et Deus noster. 

f A licentious poet, recognizing this moral corruption as the cause 
of national decay, exclaims : 

Hoc fonte derivata clades 
In patriam populumque fluxit. 
% Origen, Contra Cels., i, 67. Cf. Jus. Mar., Apol. % ii, 61, and Tert. 
Apol., and Ad. Nat., passim. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 481 

indeed 'the salt of the earth," the sole moral antiseptic 
tc prevent the total disintegration of society. 

The Christians were daily exposed to contact with 
idolatry. The whole public and private life of the hea- 
then was pervaded with the spirit of polytheism. Idol- 
atrous usages were interwoven with almost every act. 
The courts of justice, the marts of trade, the highways 
and gardens, the fountains and rivers, the domestic 
hearth, and the very doors and hinges, were under 
the protection of. their respective deities. The imple- 
ments of labour, the household utensils, the military 
ensigns, the achievements of art, the adornments of 
beauty, were all consecrated to idol worship. The daily 
meals and rites of hospitality, the social banquets and 
public amusements, the common language and saluta- 
tions of friendship, had all a religious significance. 

The Christians were therefore especially exhorted to 
" keep themselves from idols." They believed that 
their images were the abodes of daemons who delighted 
in the reek of blood and the fetid odour of sacrificial 
flesh.* Against image-makers the severest ecclesiasti- 
cal censures were denounced. They were the foster- 
fathers of devils,f to whom they offered not the sacri- 
fice of a beast, but immolated their mind, poured the 
libation of their sweat, kindled the torch of their 
thought, and slew the richer and more precious victim 
of their salvation. % The believers might not wreath 
their gates, nor illuminate their houses, nor attend 
the public festivals, nor witness a sacrifice, nor accept 
a heathen salutation, nor sell incense, nor eat meat pol- 

* Tertul., Apol., 22. 

f Fabri deorum vel parentes numinum. — Prudentius, Peristeph., 
Hymn x, 293. 

X Tertul., De Idol., vi. 

31 



4^ 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

luted with idolatrous lustration.* Thus amid pagan 
usages and unspeakable moral degradation the Chris- 
tians lived? a holy nation, a peculiar people. "We 
alone are without crime," says Tertullian ; " no Christiar 
suffers but for his religion." "Your prisons are full," 
says Minutius Felix, "but they contain not one CI ns- 
tian." And these holy lives were an argument which 
even the heathen could not gainsay. The ethics ot 
paganism were the speculations of the cultivated few 
who aspired to the character of philosophers. The 
ethics of Christianity were a system of practical duty 
affecting the daily life of the most lowly and unlettered. 
"Philosophy," says Lecky, "may dignify, but is impo- 
tent to regenerate man; it may cultivate virtue, but 
cannot restrain vice." f But Christianity introduced a 
new sense of sin and of holiness, of everlasting reward, 
and of endless condemnation. It planted a sublime, 
impassioned love of Christ in the heart, inflaming all 
its affections. It transformed the character from icy 
stoicism or epicurean selfishness to a boundless and un- 
calculating self-abnegation and devotion.^ 

This divine principle developed a new instinct of 
philanthropy in the soul. A feeling of common broth- 
erhood knit the hearts of the believers together. To 
love a slave, to love an enemy ! was accounted the im- 
possible among the heathen ; yet this incredible virtue 
they beheld every day among the Christians. " This 
surprised them beyond measure," says Tertullian, " that 

* The martyr Lucian chose to die rather than to eat things offered 
to idols. 

\ Hist, of Eur. Morals, ii, 34. 

\ The P&dagogus of Clement of Alexandria was prepared as a 
guide or "Instructor" to those who were striving to free themselves 
from pagan customs, and to conform their lives to the Christian 
character. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 483 

one man should die for another."* Hence, in the 
Christian inscriptions no word of bitterness even toward 
their persecutors is to be found. Sweet peace, the 
peace of God that passeth all understanding, breathes 
on every side. 

One of the most striking results of the new spirit of 
philanthropy which Christianity introduced is seen in 
the copious charity of the primitive church. Amid the 
ruins of ancient palaces and temples, theatres and baths, 
there are none of any house of mercy. Charity among the 
pagans was, at best, a fitful and capricious fancy. Among 
the Christians it was avast and vigorous organization, and 
was cultivated with noble enthusiasm. And the great 
and wicked city of Rome, with its fierce oppressions and 
inhuman wrongs, afforded amplest opportunity for the 
Christ-like ministrations of love and pity. There were 
Christian slaves to succour, exposed to unutterable in- 
dignities and cruel punishment, even unto crucifixion 
for conscience' sake. There were often martyrs' pangs 
to assuage, the aching wounds inflicted by the rack or 
by the nameless tortures of the heathen to bind up, and 
their bruised and broken hearts to cheer with heavenly 
consolation. There were outcast babes to pluck from 
death. There were a thousand forms of suffering and 
sorrow to relieve, and the ever-present thought of Him 
who came, not to be ministered unto but to minister, 
and to give his life a ransom for many, was an inspira- 
tion to heroic sacrifice and self-denial. And doubtless 
the religion of love won its way to many a stony pagan 
heart by the winsome spell of the saintly charities 
and heavenly benedictions of the persecuted Chris- 
tians. This sublime principle has since covered the 
earth with its institutions of mercy, and with a passion- 
* Apol., c. 39. 



4S4 The Catacombs of Rome. 

ate zeal has sought out .the woes of man in every land, 
in order to their relief. In the primitive church volun- 
tary collections * were regularly made for the poor, the 
aged, the sick, the brethren in bonds, and for the burial 
of the dead. All fraud and deceit was abhorred, and 
all usury forbidden. Many gave all their goods to feed 
the poor. " Our charity dispenses more in the streets," 
says Tertullian to the heathen, " than your religion in 
all the temples." f He upbraids them for offering to 
the gods only the worn-out and useless, such as is given 
to dogs. J "How monstrous is it," exclaims the Alex- 
andrian Clement, " to live in luxury while so many are 
in want."§ "As you would receive, show mercy," says 
Chrysostom ; " make God your debtor that you may 
receive again with usury." | The church at Antioch, 
he tells us, maintained three thousand widows and vir- 
gins, besides the sick and poor. Under the persecut- 
ing Decius the widows and infirm under the care of the 
church at Rome were fifteen hundred. " Behold the 
treasures of the church," said St. Lawrence, pointing to 
the aged and poor, when the heathen prefect came to 
confiscate its wealth. The church in Carthage sent a 
sum equal to four thousand dollars to ransom Christian 
captives in Numidia. St. Ambrose sold the sacred ves- 
sels of the church of Milan to rescue prisoners from 
the Goths, esteeming it their truest consecration to the 
service of God. " Better clothe the living temples of 
Christ," says Jerome, " than adorn the temples of 
stone."! "God has no need of plates and dishes," 
said Acacius, bishop of Amida, and he ransomed there- 
with a number of poor captives. For a similar purpose 

* Nemo compellitur, sed sponte confert. — ApoL, c. 39. 

f Ibid., 42. % Ibid., 14. § Picdag., ii, 13. 

|| Horn, in 2 Tim. 1 Epitaph. Paula. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 485 

Paulinus of Nola sold the treasures of his beautiful 
church, and it is said even sold himself into African 
slavery.* The Christian traveller was hospitably enter- 
tained by the faithful; and before the close of the 
fourth century asylums were provided for the sick, aged, 
and infirm. During the Decian persecution, when the 
streets of Carthage were strewn with the dying and the 
dead, the Christians, with the scars of recent torture 
and imprisonment upon them, exhibited the nobility of 
a gospel revenge in their care for their fever-smitten 
persecutors, and seemed to seek the martyrdom of 
Christian charity, even more glorious than that they had 
escaped.f In the plague of Alexandria six hundred 
Christian parabolatii periled their lives to succour the 
dying and bury the dead. \ Julian urged the pagan 
priests to imitate the virtues of the lowly Christians. 

Christianity also gave a new sanctity to human life, 
and even denounced as murder the heathen custom of 
destroying the unborn child. The exposure of infants 
was a fearfully prevalent pagan practice, which even 
Plato and Aristotle permitted. We have had evidences 
of the tender charity of the Christians in rescuing these 
foundlings from death, or from a fate more dreadful 
still — a life of infamy. Christianity also emphatically 
affirmed the Almighty's "canon 'gainst self-slaughter," 
which crime the pagans had even exalted into a virtue. 
It taught that a patient endurance of suffering, like 
Job's, exhibited a loftier courage than Cato's renuncia- 
tion of life. 

Out of eleven thousand Christian inscriptions of the 
first six centuries, scarce half a dozen make any ref- 
erence to a condition of servitude, and of these, as 

* Greg., Dial, iii. \ Vita Cypr. 

\ Euseb., H. E., ix, 8. 



4 86 The Catacombs of Rome. 

Dr. Northcote remarks, two or three are doubtful. Yet 
of pagan epitaphs at least three fourths are those of slaves 
or freedmen. The conspicuous absence of recognition 
of this unhappy social distinction is no mere accident. 
We know that the Christians were largely drawn from 
the servile classes, but in the church of God there was 
no respect of persons. The gospel of liberty smote the 
gyves at once from the bodies and the souls of men. 
In Christ Jesus there was neither Jew nor Greek, bond 
nor free. The wretched slave, in the intervals of toil 
or torture, caught with joy the emancipating message, 
and sprang up enfranchised by an immortalizing hope. 
Then " trampled manhood heard and claimed his 
crown." The victim of human oppression exulted in 
a new-found liberty in Christ which no wealth could 
purchase, no chains of slavery fetter, nor even death 
itself destroy. To him earth's loftiest palace was but 
a gilded prison of the soul, his lowly cot became the 
antechamber of the skies, and his emancipated spirit 
passed from his pallet of straw to the repose of Abra- 
ham's bosom. 

In the Christian church the distinctions of worldly 
rank were abolished.* The highest spiritual dignities 
were open to the lowliest slave. In the ecclesiastical 
hierarchy were no rights of birth, and no privileges of 
blood. In the inscriptions of the Catacombs no badges 
of servitude, no titles of honour appear. The wealthy 
noble — the lord of many acres — recognized in his lowly 
servant a fellow-heir of glory. They bowed together at 
the same table of the Lord, saluted each other with the 
mutual kiss of charity, and side by side in their narrow 
graves at length returned to indistinguishable dust. 

* Apud nos inter pauperes et divites, servos et dominos, interest 
nihil. — Lactr.n*., D'v. Inst., v. 14, 15. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 487 

The story of Onesimus may have often been repeated, 
and the patrician master have received his returning 
slave, " not now as a servant, but above a servant — 
a brother beloved." Nay, he may have bowed to him as 
his ecclesiastical superior, and received from his ple- 
beian hands the emblems of their' common Lord. The 
lowly arenarii and fossors, the rude Campagnian hus- 
bandmen and shepherds, and they " of Cassar's house- 
hold," met in common brotherhood, knit together by 
stronger ties than those of kinship or of worldly rank, 
as heirs of glory and of everlasting life. 

The condition of the slave population of Rome was 
one of inconceivable wretchedness. Colossal piles built 
by their blood and sweat attest the bitterness of their 
bondage. The lash of the taskmaster was heard in the 
fields, and crosses bearing aloft their quivering victims 
polluted the public highways. Vidius Pollio fed his 
lampreys with the bodies of his slaves. Four hundred 
of these wretched beings deluged with their blood the 
funeral pyre of Pedanius Secundus. A single freed- 
man possessed over four thousand of these human chat- 
tels. They had no rights of marriage nor any claim to 
their children. This dumb, weltering mass of human- 
ity, crushed by power, led by their lusts, and fed by 
public dole, became a hot-bed of vice in which every 
evil passion grew apace. The institution of slavery 
cast a stigma of disgrace on labour, and prevented the 
formation of that intelligent middle class which is the 
true safeguard of liberty. Christianity, on the contrary, 
dignified, ennobled, and in a sense hallowed labour by 
the example of its Divine Founder. It consecrated the 
lowly virtues of humility, obedience, gentleness, pa- 
tience, and long-suffering, which paganism contemned. 
It did not, indeed, at once subvert the political instir.i- 



488 The Catacombs of Rome. 

tion of slavery, but it mitigated its evils, and gradually 
led to its abolition. 

One of the noblest triumphs of Christianity was its 
suppression of the bloody spectacles of the amphithe- 
atre. The early Christians had good reason to regard 
with shuddering aversion those accursed scenes within 
that vast Coliseum which rears to-day its mighty walls, a 
perpetual monument of the cruelty of Rome's Christless 
creed. Many of their number had been mangled to death 
by savage beasts or still more savage men, surrounded 
by a sea of pitiless faces, twice eighty thousand hungry 
eyes gloating on the mortal agony of the confessor of 
Christ, while not a single thumb was reversed to make 
the sign of mercy.* There the maids and matrons, the 
patricians and the " vile plebs " of Rome, enjoyed the 
grateful spectacle of cruelty and blood. Even woman's 
pitiful nature forgot its tenderness, and the honour was 
reserved for the vestal virgin to give the signal for the 
mortal stroke that crowned the martyr's brow with fade- 
less amaranth. These hateful scenes, in which the 
spectacle of human agony and death became the im- 
passioned delight of all classes, created a ferocious 
thirst for blood and torture throughout society.f They 
overthrew the altar of pity, and impelled to every excess 
and refinement of barbarity. Even children imitated 
the cruel sport in their games, schools of gladiators were 
trained for the work of slaughter, and women fought in 
the arena, or lay dead and trampled in the sand. 

* The arena, once crimson with human gore, is now consecrated 
by the cross of Christ, ai*d a Christian service is weekly celebrated 
on the spot where a pagan emperor sought to crush the infant church. 

\ Under Trajan, renowned for his clemency, ten thousand men 
fought in the games which lasted one hundred and twenty-three days. 
To stimulate the jaded minds of the spectators men were impaled 
crucified, and burned to death- 



Social and Domestic Relations. 489 

From the very first Christianity relentlessly opposed 
Lhis horrid practice, as well as all theatrical exhibitions. 
The mingled cruelty, idolatry, and indecency of the 
performances were obnoxious alike to the humanity, 
the piety, and the modesty of the Christians.* They 
were especially included in the pomps of Satan which 
the believer abjured at his baptism. Hence their aban- 
donment was often regarded as a proof of conversion 
to Christianity. The theatre was the devil's house, and 
he had a right to all found therein. f Christianity, soon 
after it ascended the throne of the Caesars, suppressed 
the gladiatorial combats. The Christian city of Con- 
stantinople was never polluted by the atrocious exhibi- 
tion. A Christian poet eloquently denounced the bloody 
spectacle, and a Christian monk, at the cost of his life, 
protested, amid the very frenzy of the conflict, against 
its cruelty. His heroic martyrdom produced a moral 
revulsion against the practice, and the laws of Hono- 
rius, to use the language of Gibbon, " abolished forever 
the human sacrifices of the amphitheatre." 

It is remarkable that so few references to military life 
occur in Christian epitaphs, whereas they form a prom- 
inent feature in those of heathen origin. In ten thou- 

* The De Spectaculis of Tertullian is an elaborate argument con- 
cerning the idolatrous origin and character of the theatre. He de- 
scribes, in language applicable to much of the " sport " of modern 
times, the human wild beasts, passion-blind, agitated by bets, and out 
of themselves with excitement. " You have nobler joys," he says to 
the Christians. " Be startled at God's signal, roused at the angel's 
trump, glory in the palms of martyrdom. Would you have blood 
too? There is Christ's," (sec. 29.) He expatiates on the grandeur 
of the spectacle when the world, hoary with age, shall be consumed ; 
contrasts with the theatre the sight of poets, players, philosophers, and 
kings in agonies and flames ; and exults in the triumph of Christ," 
'sec. 30.) 

+ Tertul.. De Spectac, sec. 26. 



490 The Catacombs of Rome. 

sand pagan inscriptions analysed by M. Le Blant, over 
five hundred, or, more precisely, 5-47 per cent., were of 
military character ; while in four thousand seven hun- 
dred of Christian origin, most of which were after the 
period of Constantine, only .57 per cent., were military, 
or one tenth the proportion of those among the pagans. 
But even if in the army, the Christians, whose higher 
dignity was that of soldiers of Christ, would be less 
likely than the heathen to mention it in their epitaphs. 
Although Tertullian inveighs against the military ser- 
vice,* he yet admits that the Christians engaged in that 
as well as in other pursuits, f and asserts that they were 
found even in the camps. J It is probable, however, 
that the number in the army was insignificant, and these, 
it is most likely, were converted after their enlistment. 
There could be little affinity between the bronzed and 
hardened ruffians who were the instruments of the reign- 
ing tyrant's cruelty, and the meek and gentle Christians. 
We know that the latter had often to choose between 
the sword and the gospel ; and many resigned their 
office, and even embraced martyrdom, rather than per- 
jure their consciences. § They could not take the mil- 
itary oath, nor deck their weapons with laurel, nor crown 
the emperor's effigy, nor celebrate his birthday, nor ob- 

* De Idol., c. 19. 

f Navigamus . . . et militamus, et rusticamus, et mercamur. — Apol. 
c. 42. 

% Implevimus . . . castra ipsa. — Ibid., c. 37. The story of the Thun- 
dering Legion, composed entirely of Christians, is unable to withstand 
the destructive criticism of modern times. The following is the epi- 
taph of a military commander : vitalianvs magister militvm, 
qviescit in domino. We have already seen that of an officer — 
DVX militvm — who suffered martyrdom under Adrian. 

§ Euseb., II. E., viii, 4. No one in either the civil or military 
service of the emperor was eligible for ordination even as a deacon. 
— Bingham, Orig. Eccl., iv, 3, sec. I. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 49 1 

seive any other idolatrous festival. Hence they were 
accused of the dreaded crime of treason, and announced 
as (he enemies of Caesar and of the Roman people.* 
Tertullian repels the charge, and demonstrates theii 
loyalty to the emperor and to their country. f 

Feeling that their citizenship was in heaven, the 
Christians took no part in the troubled politics of earth. 
" Nothing is more indifferent to us," says Tertullian, 
"than public affairs." \ If only their religious convic- 
tions were unassailed they would gladly live in quiet, 
unaffected by civic ambition or by worldly strife. 
" Themselves half naked," sneered the heathen, " they 
despise honours and purple robes." § But although ac- 
cused of being profitless to the state, | they were never- 
theless diligent in business while fervent in spirit. " We 
are no Brahmins or Indian devotees," says their great 
apologist, "living naked in the woods, and banished 
from civilized life."^[ They were no drones in the so- 
cial hive, but patterns of industry and thrift. Inspired 
with loftier motives than their heathen neighbours, they 
faithfully discharged life's lowly toils, sedulously culti- 
vated the private virtues, and followed blamelessly what- 
soever things were lovely and of good report. 

In nothing, however, is the superiority of Christianity 
over paganism so apparent as in the vast difference in 
the position and treatment of woman in the respective 
systems. It is difficult to conceive the depths of degra- 
dation into which woman had fallen when Christianity 

* Hostes C^esarum, hostes populi Romani. — Celsus, lib. viii. 
f Christianus nullius est hostis, nedum imperatoris. — Ad Scapulum, i. 
\ Nee ulla res aliena magis quam publica. — Apol., c. 38. 
§ Honores et purpuras despiciunt ipsi seminudi. — In Munic. Fe~ 
Ux, viii. 

I Infructuosi in negotiis dicimur. — Tert , Apol., 42. 
1 Ibid. 



49 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

came to rescue her from infamy, to clothe her with the 
domestic virtues, to enshrine her amid the sanctities of 
home, and to employ her in the gentle ministrations of 
charity. The Greek courtesan, says Lecky, was the 
finest type of Greek life — the one free woman of Athens. 
But how world-wide was the difference between the 
Greek hetcei-a — a Phryne or an Aspasia, though hon- 
oured by Socrates and Pericles — and the Christian ma- 
trons Monica, Marcella, or Fabiola. So much does 
woman owe to Christianity ! In Rome her condition 
was still worse. The heathen satirists paint in strong- 
est colours the prevailing corruptions, and the historians 
of the times reveal abounding wickedness that shames 
humanity. The vast wealth, the multiplication of slaves, 
the influx of orientalism with its debasing vices, had 
thoroughly corrupted society. The relations of the 
sexes seemed entirely dislocated. The early Roman 
ideas of marriage were forgotten ; it had no moral, only 
a legal character. Woman, reckless of her " good 
name," had lost " the most immediate jewel of her soul." 
The Lucretias and Virginias of the old heroic days were 
beings of tradition. A chaste woman, says Juvenal, 
was a rara avis in terra. The Julias and Messalinas 
flaunted their wickedness in the high places of the earth, 
and to be Caesar's wife was not to be above suspicion. 
Alas, that in a few short centuries Christianity should 
sink so low that the excesses of a Theodora should rival 
those of an Agrippina or a Julia ! Even the loftiest 
pagan moralists and philosophers recklessly disregarded 
the most sacred social obligation at their mere caprice. 
Cicero, who discoursed so nobly concerning the nature 
of the gods, divorced his wife Terentia that he might 
mend his broken fortunes by marrying his wealthy 
ward. Cato ceded his wife, with the consent, of 



Social and Domestic Relations. 493 

her father, to his friend Hortensius, taking her back after 
his death. Woman was not a person, but a thing, says 
Gibbon. Her rights and interests were lost in those of 
her husband. She should have no friends nor gods 
but his, says Plutarch. It was the age of reckless 
divorce. In the early days of the Commonwealth there 
had been no divorce in Rome in five hundred and forty 
years. In the reign of Nero, says Seneca, the women 
measured their years by their husbands, and not by the 
consuls. Juvenal speaks of a woman with eight hus- 
bands in five years; * and Martial, in extravagant hyper- 
bole, of another who married ten husbands in a month. \ 
We must also regard as an exaggeration the account 
given by Jerome of a woman married to her twenty- third 
husband, being his twenty-first wife. J 

Nevertheless, God did not leave himself without a 
witness in the hearts of the people ; and we have seen 
many illustrations of conjugal happiness in previous in- 
scriptions. § But Christianity first taught the sanctity 
of the marriage relation, as a type of the mystical union 
between Christ and his church ; and enforced the recip- 
rocal obligation of conjugal fidelity, which was previously 
regarded as binding on woman alone. In their recoil 
from the abominable licentiousness of the heathen, the 
Christians regarded modesty as the crown of all the vir- 
tues, and against its violation the heaviest ecclesiastical 
penalties were threatened. This regard was at length 
intensified into a superstitious reverence for celibacy. | 

* Sat., vi, 20. f Epig., vii, 6. \ Epist., cxi. 

§ The names of Penelope, Andromache, Alcestis, and Antigone 
will be forever illustrious types of the domestic virtues. 

|| The Fathers frequently contrasted the few heathen vestal virgins 
with the multitude of Christian celibates. Tl" Christian emperors 
and the early councils resolutely repressed harlotry, drunkenness, 
wanton dancing, and immodest plays and books. 



494 The Catacombs of Rome. 

The absolute sinfulness of a divorce was maintained 
by the early councils.* The Fathers admit of but one 
cause, that which Christ himself assigns, as rendering it 
lawful, f They also denounced second marriage, or 
bigamy, as it was called, which excluded from the 
clerical order, and from a share in the charities of the 
church. \ The marriage relation was regarded as the 
union of two souls for time and for eternity. § 

* Cone. Nic, 8 ; Ancyra, 19 ; Laodic, 1 ; Neo Caes., 3. 

f Tertul., Contr. Marc, iv, 34, etc. 

% Tertullian wrote a special treatise on the subject — De Mono- 
gamia. The injunction that a bishop should be the husband of one 
wife was regarded as a prohibition of a second marriage. Some of 
the Fathers, however, dissented from this view, as Hermes, {Pastor, 
ii, 4) ; Augustine, {De Bono Viduitatis, 12). On many pagan tombs 
occurs the word tmivira — " Once married." There are several ex- 
amples of wives in the prime of their youth and beauty devoting 
themselves to retirement on the death of their husbands, as the wives 
of Pompey, of Drusus, and of Lucan. 

§ The beauty and dignity of Christian wedlock are nobly expressed 
by Tertullian in the following passage, addressed to his own wife : 
" How can I paint the happiness," he exclaims, " of a marriage which 
the church ratines, the sacrament confirms, the benediction seals, an- 
gels announce, and our heavenly Father declares valid ! What a 
union of two believers — one hope, one vow, one discipline, one wor- 
ship ! They are brother and sister, two fellow-servants, one spirit and 
one flesh. They pray together, fast together, exhort and support one 
another. They go together to the house of God, and to the table of 
the Lord. They share each other's trials, persecutions, and joys. 
Neither avoids nor hides any thing from the other. They delight to 
visit the sick, succour the needy, and daily to lay their offerings be- 
fore the altar without scruple or constraint. They do not need to 
keep the sign of the cross hidden, nor to express secretly their Chris- 
tian joy, nor receive by stealth the eucharist. They join in psalms 
and hymns, and strive who best can praise God. Christ rejoices at 
the sight, and sends his peace upon them. Where two are in his 
name he also is ; and where he is, their evil cannot come"— Ad Uxo- 
rem, ii, 8. He thus describes the difficulties which a Christian wom- 
an married to an idolater must encounter in her religious life : " At 
the time for worship the husband will appoint the use of the bath ; 



Social and Domestic Relations. 495 

The church, following the principle laid down by 
St. Paul, strongly opposed mixed marriages with the 
heathen ; and the Fathers denounced them as danger- 
ous and immoral. Cyprian regards them as a prostitu- 
tion of the members of Christ.* Tertullian also desig- 
nates them spiritual adultery. f Where conversion oc- 
curred after marriage, the Christian partner was exhort- 
ed, in the spirit of the apostolic counsel, to strive by 
gentleness and love to win the unbelieving companion 
to Christ. Thus Monica, the mother of Augustine, and 
Clotildis, the wife of Clovis, both brought their heathen 
husbands to embrace Christianity. 

The rites and benedictions of the church were early 
invoked to give sanction to Christian marriage ; \ and 
doubtless in the dim recesses of the Catacombs, and 
surrounded by the holy dead, youthful hearts must have 
plighted their troth, and been the more firmly knit to- 
gether by the common perils and persecutions they 
must share. Here, too, the wedded pair may have 
paced the silent galleries, by holy converse inspired 
with stronger faith and more fervent love. How sweet 
must discourse of heaven have been in those sunless 

when a fast is to be observed he will invite company to a feast. 
When she would bestow alms, both safe and cellar are closed against 
her. What heathen will suffer his wife to attend the nightly meet- 
ings of the church, the slandered supper of the Lord, to visit the 
sick even in the poorest hovels, to kiss the martyr's chains in prison, 
to lise in the night for prayer, to show hospitality to stranger breth- 
ren ? " — Ibid. 

* Jungere cum infidelibus vinculum matrimonii prostituere gentil- 
ibus membra Christi. 

■j- Ad Ux., ii, 2-9. Jerome says that women married to heathen 
become part of that body whose ribs they are. — Cont. Jovin.,\, 5. 

% Secret marriages were forbidden, nor might this union take place 
without the approbation of the earthly as well as of the heavenly pa- 
rent. — Tert., Ad. Ux.. ii, 9. 



496 The Catacombs of Rome. 

depths of earth ! How thrilling those partings when 
before another meeting each might win a martyr's 
crown. 

When the church emerged from the Catacombs the 
marriage rites assumed a more festive character, and 
were frequently attended with nuptial processions, 
songs, music, and feasting. Some of the gilded glasses 
previously described seem to commemorate these occa- 
sions. Thus we occasionally find representations of the 
man and woman standing with clasped hands before the 
marriage altar, while Christ crowns the newly wedded 
pair. Sometimes the glass used in the marriage rite 
was immediately broken, as if to denote the tran- 
sient nature of even the highesf human bliss. The 
innocent festivities of these occasions gradually degen- 
erated into convivial excesses ; and, in conformity to 
heathen usages, were contaminated by licentiousness 
of speech and action unbecoming to Christian mod- 
esty. These abuses called for the strong denunciations 
of the Fathers and the early councils, and at length 
the clergy were forbidden to attend such festivals. 
The early Christians were required, in all their enter- 
tainments and festivals, by temperance,* by purity, by 
piety, to adorn the doctrines of the Gospel. Prayer 
hallowed their daily lives, and every act was done to the 
glory of God. 

In their apparel and households the primitive be- 
lievers were patterns of sobriety and godliness. The 
pomps and vanities of the world were renounced at 
their baptism. They eschewed all sumptuous and 
gaudy clothing as unbecoming the gravity and sim- 
plicity of the Christian character. Although many by 

* " Guard against drunkenness as against hemlock." says Clement 
of Alexandria, " for both drag down to death." — Padag., i, 7. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 497 

social rank were entitled to wear the flowing Roman 
toga, yet by most it was regarded as too ostentatious in 
appearance ; and, disdaining all assumption of worldly 
honour, they wore instead the common pallium or cloak. 
They rejected also, as the epicurean enticements of 
a world the fashion whereof was passing away, the 
luxurious draperies, the costly cabinets and couches, 
the golden vessels and marble statuary that adorned the 
abodes of the wealthy heathen. 

The strong instinct of the female mind to personal 
adornment was suppressed by religious convictions and 
ecclesiastical discipline; and Christian women culti- 
vated rather the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit 
than the meretricious attractions of the heathen. " Let 
your comeliness be the goodly garment of the soul," says 
Tertullian. " Be arrayed in the ornaments of the apos- 
tles and prophets, drawing your whiteness from sim- 
plicity, your ruddy hue from modesty, painting your 
eyes with bashfulness, your mouth with silence, implant- 
ing in your ears the word of God, fitting on your neck 
the yoke of Christ. Clothe yourself with the silk of 
uprightness, the fine linen of holiness, the purple of 
modesty, and you shall have God himself for your lovei 
and spouse."* 

" Let woman breathe the odour of the true royal oint- 
ment, that of Christ, and not of unguents and scented 
powders," writes Clement of Alexandria, warning the 
faithful against another heathen practice. " Let her be 
anointed with the ambrosial chrism of industry, and 
find delight in the holy unguent of the Spirit, and of- 
fer spiritual fragrance. She may not crown the living 

* De Cultu Feminarum, ii, 3-13 : " The wife should weave her own 
apparel," says Clement of Alexandria, referring to Frov. xxxi, 10-31 
This is also the etymological meaning of the English word wife. 
32 



498 The Catacombs of Rome. 

image of God as the heathen do dead idols. Her fair 
crown is one of amaranth, which groweth not on earth, 
but in the skies."* The simple and modest garb of 
the Christian matron is exhibited in many of the repre- 
sentations of oranti, or praying figures, in the chambers 
of the Catacombs. See one beautiful example from a 
sarcophagus in Fig. 88. 

With the corruption of the church and decay of piety 
under the post-Constantinian emperors came the devel- 
opment of luxury and an increased sumptuousness of 
apparel. The refined classic taste was lost, and bar- 
baric pomp and splendour were the only expression of 
opulence. The mosaics in the vestibules of the more 
ancient basilicas, and an occasional representation from 
the Catacombs of the period of their latest occupation, 
illustrate the increased luxury of dress. The primitive 
simplicity has given place to many-coloured and em- 
broidered robes. The hair, often false, was tortured 
into unnatural forms, and raised in a towering mass on 
the head, not unlike certain modern fashionable modes, 
and was frequently artificially dyed. The person was 
bedizened with jewelry — pendents in the ears, pearls 
on the neck, bracelets and a profusion of rings on the 
arms and fingers. St. Jerome inveighs with peculiar 
vehemence against the attempt to beautify the com- 
plexion with pigments. " What business have rouge 
and paint on a Christian cheek ? " he asks. " Who can 
weep for her sins when her tears wash bare furrows on 
her skin ? With what trust can faces be lifted to heaven 
which the Maker cannot recognize as his workman- 
ship ? " f The mosaic portrait of St. Agnes is richly 

* Pcedag., ii, 8. 

f Ep. 54 : " Polire faciem purpurisso " he exclaims, " et cerusa ora 
depingere, oniaie crinem. et al'enis capillis turritam verticem stra- 



Social and Domestic Relations. 499 

idorned with gems, and even the earliest examples of 
.he* Madonna is bedizened in Byzantine style with a 
necklace of pearls.* The following engraving from 
D'Agincourt illustrates the tasteless drapery and coif- 
fure which awakened such intense patristic indignation. 
The simplicity of the funeral rites of the primitive 
Christians is indicated by the character of the sepul- 
chral monuments of the Catacombs. No " storied urn 
or animated bust," nor costly mausolea, were employed 
to commemorate those who slept in Christ. A narrow 
grave, undistinguished from the multitude around save 
by the name of the deceased, or by the emblem of his 
calling, or symbol of his faith, and most frequently not 

ere." Cyprian suggests that the Almighty might not recognize them ai 
the resurrection. They should not dye their hair or clothes, as violat- 
ing the saying that " thou canst not make one hair white or black;" and 
God had not made sheep scarlet or purple. — De habitu Virginum, 14- 
16. " Nevertheless," says Clement, " they cannot with their bought and 
painted beauty avoid wrinkles or evade death." Tertullian denounces 
their flame-coloured heads, "built up with pads and rolls, the slough 
perhaps of some guilty wretch now in hell." — De Velendis Virgiiiibus, 
ii, 17. " One delicate neck," he says, " carries about it forests and isl- 
ands " — saltus et insula ; that is, their price. — Ibid.,\, 9. At the court 
of the Eastern Empire, effeminacy and oriental luxury still further 
degraded the Christian character. Clement of Alexandria denounces 
with indignation the extravagance and vice of the so-called Chris- 
tian community of that city. The wealth that should have been de- 
voted to the poor was expended in gilded litters and chariots, splendid 
banquets and baths, in costly jewelry and dresses. Wealthy ladies, 
instead of maintaining widows and orphans, wasted their sympathies 
on monkeys, peacocks, and Maltese dogs. — Pad., iii, 4. " Riches," 
he adds, " is like a serpent which will bite unless we know how to 
take it by the tail." — Ibid., 6. He compares the Alexandrian women 
to " an Egyptian temple, gorgeous without, but enshrining only a cat 
or crocodile : so beneath their meretricious adorning were concealed 
vile and loathsome passions." The sumptuary laws of the Theodosian 
tode prohibited the use of gold brocade or silken tissue, (x, tit, 20 
*lv, ip,) 
* See Fig. 90. See also oranti in Fig. 82. 



5°° The Catacombs of Rome. 

even by these, sufficed, in the earlier and purer days of 
the church, for the last resting-place of the saints. As 




Flgf. 1J29.— Bellicia fedelissima virgo qve vixit annos xvlii, («ta.) 
Belicia, a most faithful virgin who lived eighteen years. 

wealth increased and faith grew cold, more attention was 
given to the external expression of grief or regard fot 
the departed ; and the chambers, at first rudely hewn 
from the tufa, became ornamented with stucco and 



Social and Domestic Relations. 501 

frescoes, and lined with marble slabs, and the inscrip- 
tions became more turgid and artificial. The super- 
stitious veneration paid to the relics of the saints in 
later days led to the adornment of their sepulchres; 
and during the period of the temporal supremacy of 
Christianity, the posthumous ostentation of the rich 
was manifested in their costly sarcophagi and funeral 
monuments.* 

All immoderate grief for the departed was regarded 
as inconsistent with Christian faith and hope. " Our 
brethren are not to be lamented who are freed from the 
world by the summons of the Lord," says Cyprian, "for 
we know they are not lost, but sent before us. We may 
not wear the black robes of mourning while they are al- 
ready clothed with the white raiment of joy. Nor may 
we grieve for those as lost whom we know to be living 
with God." f Nay, the day of their death was celebrated 
as their JVatalitia, or their true birthday — their entrance 
into the undying life of heaven. The primitive believ- 
ers were not, however, insensible to natural affection, as 
many of the inscriptions already given fully prove ; but 
they were sustained by a lofty hope and serene confi- 
dence in God. 

The early Christian burial rites were entirely differ- 
ent from the pomp and pageantry of grief which char- 
acterized pagan funerals. When the spirit had departed, 
the body was washed with water and robed for the grave 
in spotless white, to represent, Chrysostom suggests, the 
sduI's putting on the garment of incorruption. In later 

* This lapidary extravagance was censured, as seeming to imply 
that the sepulchres were the receptacles of the souls rather than of 
the bodies. — Ambr., De Bono Mortis. 

f Cypr., De Mortal., 20. See also Augustine's pathetic account of 
the death of his mother, Monica — Premebam oculos ejus et conflue- 
bat in preecordia moestitudo ingens, etc. — Con/., ix, 12. 



502 The Catacombs of Rome. 

times costly robes of silk and cloth of gold were employed 
for the burial of the wealthy, against which practice Je- 
rome strongly inveighs. " Why does not your ambition 
cease," he exclaims, "in the midst of mournir.g and 
tears ? Cannot the bodies of the rich return to dust oth 
erwise than in silk ? " * The body was also frequently 
embalmed, or at least plentifully enswathed with myrrh 
and aromatic spices, after the manner of the burial of 
Our Lord. This was especially necessary in the Cata- 
combs on account of the frequent proximity of the liv- 
ing to the dead. We find frequent allusions to this 
practice in the Fathers.f It was a pagan reproach that 
the Christians bought no odours for their persons nor 
incense for the gods.J " It is true," says Tertullian, 
"but the Arabs and Sabeans well know that we con- 
sume more of these costly wares for our dead than the 
heathen do for the gods."§ 

The nearest relatives or pious friends bore the corpse to 
the grave, and committed it as the seed of immortality to 
the genial bosom of the earth, often strewing the body with 
flowers, in beautiful symbolism of the resurrection to the 

* Father Marchi found, along with some charred bones, supposed 
to be relics of St. Hyacinth, some threads of gold tissue, as if the 
martyr's remains had been wrapped in this costly material. He^also 
perceived an aromatic odour on opening some graves. Occasionally 
large lumps of lime have been found bearing the marks of the linen 
in which they were wrapped. Its caustic nature would hasten the 
destruction of animal tissue. 

\ An cadavera divitum nisi in serico putrescere nesciunt. — Vit. 
Pauli. Arringhi has a chapter on the subject, (lib. i, c. 23,) Cadav- 
era unguentis et aromatibus condiuntur. 

% Non corpus odoribus honestatis. — Ap., Mimic, p. 35. Jerome 
urges the substitution of the balsam of alms-deeds and charity. 

§ Thura plane non emimus, etc. — ApoL, 42. "You expect your 
women will bury your body with ointments and spices," said the 
heathen judge to the martyr Tarachus ; to prevent which he con- 
demned him to be burned. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 503 

fadeless summer of the skies.* In times of persecution 
the privilege would often be purchased with money of 
gathering the martyrs' mangled remains, and bearing 
them by stealth, along the pagan "Street of Tombs," to 
the silent community of the Christian dead.f Instead of 
employing the pagan nania, or funeral dirge, and prcejicce, 
or hireling mourners, the Christians accompanied the dead 
to their repose with psalms and hymns,! chanting such 
versicles as, " Return to thy rest, O my soul ; " " I will fear 
no evil, for thou art with me ; " " Blessed are the dead 
that die in the Lord." § Frequently, as will be hereafter 
seen, the agape or eucharist was celebrated at the grave. 

The heathen buried their dead by night on account 
of the defilement the very sight of a funeral was sup- 
posed to cause. The Christians repudiated this idola- 
trous notion, and, except when prevented during times 
of persecution, buried openly by day, that the living 
might be reminded of their mortality and led to pre- 
pare for death. 

We have thus seen the immense superiority, in all the 

* In later times similar rites were paid to the tomb. " We will 
adorn the hidden bones," sings Prudentius, " with violets and many a 
bough ; and on the epitaphs and the cold stones we will sprinkle 
liquid odours." — Cathem., x. 

\ See Euseb., H. £., vii, 16 and 22. They were often denied the 
privilege. — Ibid., v, I. Eutychianus, a Roman Christian, is said to 
have buried three hundred and forty-two martyrs with his own hands. 

\ ^uKkovreq irpowefinerE avrovc, k. t. A. — Constit. Apos., vi, 30. 
Ilymnos et Psalmos decantans, etc. — Hieron., Vit. Pauli. 

§ Chrys., Horn., 4, in Hebr. The following inscription indicates 
that the corpse was sometimes brought to the Catacombs some time 
before burial ; probably immediately after death, as in Italy it is now 
taken to the church. Pecora didcis anima benit in cimitero Martu- 
rorum, vii, idns yul. Dp. Postera die — " Pecora, a sweet soul, came 
(was brought) to the cemetery of the martyrs on the 9th of July ; was 
buried the following day." 



504 The Catacombs of Rome. 

elements of true dignity and excellence of primitive 
Christianity to the corrupt civilization by which it was 
surrounded. It ennobled the character and purified 
the morals of mankind. It raised society from the in- 
effable slough into which it had fallen, imparted ten- 
derness and fidelity to the domestic relations of life., 
and enshrined marriage in a sanctity before unknown. 
Notwithstanding the corruptions by which it became 
infected in the days of its power and pride, even the 
worst form of Christianity was infinitely preferable to the 
abominations of paganism. It gave a sacredness previ- 
ously unconceived to human life. It averted the sword 
from the throat of the gladiator, and, plucking helpless 
infancy from exposure to untimely death, nourished it 
in Christian homes. It threw the segis of its protection 
over the slave and the oppressed, raising them from the 
condition of beasts to the dignity of men and the fel- 
lowship of saints. With an unwearied and passionate 
charity it yearned over the suffering and sorrowing 
every-where, and created a vast and comprehensive or- 
ganization for their relief, of which the world had before 
no example and had formed no conception. It was a 
holy Vestal, ministering at the altar of humanity, wit- 
nessing ever of the Divine, and keeping the sacred fire 
burning, not for Rome, but for the world. Its winsome 
gladness and purity, in an era of unspeakable pollution 
and sadness, revived the sinking heart of mankind, and 
made possible a Golden Age in the future transcending 
far that which poets pictured in the past. It blotted 
out cruel laws, like those of Draco written in blood,* 

* The Christian emperors prohibited the branding of felons on the 
forehead on the ground " that the human countenance, formed after 
the image of heavenly beauty, should not be defaced." They also 
exempted widows and orphans from taxation, and contributed to their 
support. 



Social and Domestic Relations. 505 

and led back Justice, long banished, to the judgment 
seat. It ameliorated the rigours of the penal code, and, 
as experience has shown, lessened the amount of crime. 
It created an art purer and loftier than that of pagan- 
ism ; and a literature rivaling in elegance cf form, and 
surpassing in nobleness of spirit, the sublimest produc- 
tions of the classic muse. Instead of the sensual con- 
ceptions of heathenism, polluting the soul, it supplied 
images of purity, tenderness, and pathos, which fasci- 
nated the imagination and hallowed the heart. It 
taught the sanctity of suffering and of weakness, and 
the supreme majesty of gentleness and ruth. 



$o6 The Catacombs of Rome. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MINISTRY, RITES, AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 

We gain from the testimony of the Catacombs most 
important information as to the organization of the 
church during the early Christian centuries. We see 
on every side records of an efficient ministry of differ- 
ent grades and dignities, yet wholly unlike that vast 
hierarchical system which claims to be its lineal de- 
scendant. We discern also evidences of a well-ordered 
administration of the sacraments and ordinances of re- 
ligion, simple and unadorned, yet instinct with spiritual 
life and power, compared with which the gorgeous rit- 
ual and lifeless pomp of Romanism are more akin, in out- 
ward form at least, to the pagan homage of the Bona 
Dea, or to the mysteries of Mithras, than to Christian 
worship. So complete is this testimony as to the min- 
istry and rites of the primitive church, that Dr. North- 
cote remarks that, " even if all the writings of the 
Fathers had altogether perished, we might almost recon- 
struct the whole fabric of the ecclesiastical polity from 
the scattered notices of these sepulchral inscriptions."* 

The somewhat complex ecclesiastical organization 
which we discover was probably a gradual development 
with the growth of the church, and not in its entirety 
the creation of the earliest times; the inscriptions re- 
ferring to the subject, it must be remembered, being all 

* Northcote's Catacombs, p. 140. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 507 

or chiefly of post-Constantinian origin. The earlier books 
of the Apostolical Constitutions, which are probably 
of the second century, say almost nothing about the 
different grades of the ministry ; but in the later ones, 
probably of the fifth century, a full blown sacerdotalism 
appears. Cornelius, bishop of Rome in the middle of 
the third century, records the existence of a graduated 
clergy like that indicated in the inscriptions of the Cata- 
combs,* whose gradations Clement of Alexandria com- 
pares to the different ranks of the hierarchy of heaven. f 
The highest office in the church of the Catacombs 
was that of the bishop — the chief pastor % or overseer of 
the flock of Christ. But this position was rather a pre- 
eminence of toil and peril than of dignity and honour. 
The supreme head of the Roman hierarchy, who lays 
claim to the attributes of deity himself, and sits in the 
seat of God as his vicegerent and infallible representa- 
tive on earth, finds no precedent for his lofty assump- 
tions in his humble predecessors of the primitive ages. 
These were in reality what he is only in name — servi 
servorum Dei. Even the title of bishop occurred but 
seldom. Neither Bosio, Fabretti, Boldetti, nor any other 
of the early explorers of the Catacombs, found a single 
example of it. The tomb of the first Roman bishop 
bore simply the name linvs. In the so-called " papal 

* Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vi, 43. The hierarchical subdivisions in 
the Greek church are vastly more elaborate. Thus we have the pa- 
triarch, metropolitan, archbishop, bishop, proto-presbyter, super-dean, 
dean, presbyter, proto-deacon, deacon, sub-deacon, and common 
priest, besides a host of inferior grades. 

f Strom., vi, 13. " The succession of the early Roman bishops," says 
Stillingfleet, " is as muddy as the Tiber itself." — Ircnicum, ii, 7. It 
is an historical riddle of which it is difficult or impossible to find the 
solution. •* 

\ Eusebius gives this very title, noiftfjv, to Cyprian, (vii, 3.) They 
were also called trpoedoot, irpoear^g, and prasidis, or presidents. 



$oS The Catacombs of Rome. 

crypt " the title first appears, but in the contracted 
form, Eni and E1TIC, and without any symbol of superior 
dignity whatever. The name of a bishop was first made 
a note of time in the latter part of the fourth century, 
as in the epigraphic formulae Sub Liberio Episcopo — Sub 
Damaso Episcopo — During the episcopate of Liberius, 
(A. D. 350-366,) of Damasus, (A. D. 366-384.) But 
this distinction was also conferred on other bishops than 
those of Rome. Thus, in the year A. D. 397, we find 
the expression Pascasio Episcopo. Now, as there was 
no Roman bishop of that name, Pascasius must have 
presided over some of the adjacent sees, of which we 
know that there were many independent of Rome.* 

* Hippolytus, bishop of Portus, only fifteen miles from Rome, and 
a saint of the Roman calendar, strongly opposed both Zephyrinus 
and Callixtus, bishops of Rome. In the fifth century Milan took pre- 
cedence of Rome, and many other places were of equal dignity. The. 
episcopal office was very different from what is now implied by the 
name, and its functions varied little from those of the presbyter, save 
in the general oversight of a comparatively limited diocese. Thus in 
Northern Africa alone were four hundred and sixty-six bishops, be- 
side sixty-six vacant sees. Clement, bishop of Rome, (Ep. ad Cor., 
74,) Justin Martyr, and other early writers, seem to imply that the 
terms bishop and presbyter were at first permutable. Cyprian, bishop 
of Carthage, addresses his clergy as his co-presbyters — compresbyteros. 
Jerome, jealous for his order, asserts the original identity of the 
offices (idem est presbyter qui et episcopus) and the gradual develop- 
ment of episcopal dignity, from custom rather than from primitive ap- 
pointment, {Comment, in Titum.) Chrysostom asserts the original 
convertibility of the titles of bishop and presbyter — ol irpeo-(3vTepoi to 
iva\aibv huakovvTO ETriotcoTroi, ical ol eiriaKoxot irpeajivTepoi. — Homil. i, 
in Phil., i. Lord King compares the two to the offices of rector 
and curate, (Prim. Ch., c. 4,) but Bingham's High Church notions led 
him to magnify the essential difference between the two, (Orig. Eccl., 
ii, 3.) The bishops were elected by the presbyters and the laity joint- 
ly. Eusebius states that Fabian was indicated for the office by the 
divine portent of a dove descending upon him, (H. E., vi, 29.) They 
generally attained this dignity not per salhtm, but having passed 
through the inferior grades. Cyprian, however, was but a neophyte. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 509 

The word papa, or pope, does not occur in the Cata- 
combs till at least the latter part of the fourth century. 
It appears first spelled pappas, and applied to Damasus, 
in the margin of an inscription by that bishop, in honour 
of Eusebius.* But De Rossi admits that this is a badly 
executed reproduction, of the sixth or seventh century, 
of a previous inscription ; so this title may very well 
belong to that late period. This is all the more prob- 
able from the phraseology of the very first line of this 
inscription : damasvs episcopvs fecit evsebio eptscopo 
et martyri — " Damasus, bishop, (not pope,) to Euse- 
bius, bishop and martyr." Hilary (461-467) calls him- 
self bishop and servant of Christ — " Episcopus et famu- 
lus C/iristi." In an epitaph of A. D. 523, Hormisdas is 
called merely dominvs papa — that is, " honoured fa- 
ther," or " pope," which is probably the first application 
of this phrase in Christian epigraphy. In another, of 
date A. D. 563, John III. is designated as the " most 
blessed father John " — Beatissimus papa Joannes. \ 

But even this title, invested with such awful dignity 
and supreme authority in later days, was at first only an 
expression of familiar and affectionate respect, not pe- 
culiar to the bishop of Rome, nor indeed first applied 
to him. Its earliest use is attributed to Dionysius, 

Eusebius a catechumen, and Ambrose a layman, when appointed to 
the office of bishop. In the course of time, in the East the emper- 
ors, in the West the kings, usurped the power of appointment, a 
relic of which is seen in the royal conge d'elire in Great Britain, so 
strongly satirized by Carlyle, (Latter-day Pamphlets.) 

* See ante, p. 95. 

f We have already seen that the inscription of date A. D. 392, re- 
garded as the epitaph of a " most holy Pope Felix," was in reality 
that of a foster-father. See ante, p. 471. The phrase " Apostolic 
See," now restricted to Rome, was originally applied to every bish- 
op's seat. — Bingham, ii, 2, § 3. 



510 TJie Catacombs of Rome. 

bishop of Alexandria, in the latter part of the third cen- 
tury.* The Roman clergy address the bishop of Car- 
thage in their letters as " the blessed pope Cyprian." \ 
Tertullian applies the name to any Christian bishop. \ 
Jerome addresses Augustine, bishop of the little Afri- 
can diocese of Hippo, as the Beatissimus papa Augus- 
finus, § and applies the same phrase to the superior of 
a monastery. || 

The rapid extension of Christianity in the metropolis 
of the empire enhanced the influence and dignity of 
the Roman bishops. 1" With the increase of wealth and 
decay of piety these dignitaries became ambitious and 
worldly, arrogant and aspiring, and laid the founda- 
tions of that vast system of spiritual despotism which 
for centuries crushed the civil and religious liberties of 
Europe. Nevertheless, as late as the end of the sixth 
century, Gregory the Great, although zealous for the 
episcopal dignity, resents the claim' of John of Constan- 

* He speaks of his predecessor in office as " our father, (irdna,) the 
blessed Hereclas." — Eu., If. £., vii, 7. In like manner an epitaph 
of an African bishop, of date A. D. 475, designates him "our father 
of holy memory " — Sanctis memories pater noster. 

f Ep. 8. Cler. Rom. ad Cler. Cart A. 

% De Pudicit., c. 13. 

§ Ep. 17, 18, 30, etc. 

|| The synonymous title of abbot is still used in this sense. It was 
applied to the hermit monks of the Orkneys and Iceland, and gave 
the name Papa Strona and Papa Westra to islands of the Orkney 
group. 

T[ Optatus says there were forty churches in Rome in the third 
century. Ammianus describes the almost regal pomp of the bishops 
in the latter part of the fourth century, and records the sanguinary 
straggle for the episcopal dignity between Damasus and Ursicinus. 
The streets were strewn with the slain, and one hundred and thirty- 
seven corpses polluted the sacred precincts of a Christian basilica. 
The primitive church stigmatized simony as xP LaTe l ln0 P E ''- av > or " sell- 
ing Christ." 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 5 1 1 

tinople to the title of oecumenical bishop in the strik- 
ing words :■ " This I declare with confidence, that whoso 
designates himself universal priest, or, in the pride of 
his heart, consents to be so named, he is the forerunner 
of Antichrist."* His successors of Rome have not 
shrunk from this malediction, but, in assumption of this 
universal supremacy, have placed their feet on the neck 
of kings, parcelled out empires, and conferred crowns 
at their pleasure. \ 

The next rank in ecclesiastical dignity was that of the 
Presbyters. J There was not that distinction in the prim- 

* Ego autem fidenter dico quia quisque se universalem sacerdotem 
vocat, vel vocari desiderat, in elatione su4 Antichristum prsecurrit. — 
Greg. Afax., Epis. vii, 7-33. 

f Gregory III. (731-741) styles himself " the most holy and blessed 
Apostolic Pope" — Sanctissimus ac Beatissimus Apostolicus Papa. 
Boniface VIII. adopted the triple-crowned tiara, to indicate the 
Pope's dominion over heaven, earth, and hell. 

Dante represents the pope as an all-powerful griffin, symbolical of 
his spiritual and temporal functions, drawing the triumphal car of the 
church. — Purzatorio, Can. xxix. Yet in a fresco of the seventh or 
eighth century, of Cornelius, bishop of Rome, he is in no way distin- 
guished by costume, insignia, or title from Cyprian, bishop of Car- 
thage, who stands beside him. 

• \ The name was not always indicative of age, but of office, like the 
Jewish QijpT or elders, the Latin senatores, and the Saxon alder- 
men. ' % 

Rheinwal, Geisler, Neander, and other eminent German scholars, 
agree that the term bishop originally was merely the official title of 
the presbyter who was chosen to rule or oversee the church ; and that 
the latter sat in consistory with the bishop, forming the ecclesiastical 
senate, in which the bishop was simply the presiding officer — -primus 
inter pares. 

It is worthy of note that the word lepevg, " priest," that is, one who 
offers sacrifice, is nowhere applied to any ecclesiastical rank in the 
Catacombs, or in the writings of the primitive Fathers. It has been 
left for Romanism, and a Romanizing sacerdotalism, to apply to the 
Christian minister this phrase, so opposed to the genius of the New 
Testament. 



5 1 j The Catacombs of Rome. 

itive ages between their office and that of the bishops 
that afterward arose. Bishop Pearson represents their 
power and dignity as greater the nearer we ascend to 
the apostolic times. Their principal functions were the 
administration, in association with the bishops, of the 
sacraments, the enforcement of discipline, the preach- 
ing of the word, and the pastorate of the church. Their 
epitaphs in the Catacombs and basilicas are frequently 
very brief, as the following : locvs geronti presb — 
" The place of Gerontus, a presbyter ; " positvs est hic 
leontivs presbiter (sic) — " Here is placed Leontius, a 
presbyter." Sometimes the title is expressed in a con- 
tracted form, thus : hic qviescit romanvs pbb. qvi 
sedit pbb • ann • xxvin • m • x. — " Here reposes Roman- 
us, a presbyter, who sat a presbyter twenty-eight years 
ten months."* Boldetti gives the epitaph of acativs 
pastor, who was probably a presbyter, his title express- 
ing his pastoral office. The following, of date A. D. 471, 
which is more elaborate than usual, is of some histori- 
cal interest : f 

PRESBYTER HIC POSITVS FELIX IN PACE QVIESCIT 
CVIVS PVRA FIDES PROBITAS VIGILANTIA SOLLERS 
PONTIFICVM CLARO PLACVIT SIC NOTA LEONI 
POST LABSVM VT REPARANS VENERANDI CVLMINA PAVLI 
HVIC OPERIS TANTI RENOVANDAM CREDERET AVLAM. 
" Felix, the presbyter, placed here, reposes in peace, whose pure 
faith, probity, sagacious vigilance, when known, so pleased the illus- 

* The letters Pbb., according to De Rossi, stand for Presbyter bene- 
dictus. 

\ Felix was probably presbyter of the basilica of St. Paul, founded 
by Constantine A. D. 324, rebuilt by Theodosius and Honorius, 
A. D. 388-395, restored by Leo I., A. D. 440, and again by the pres- 
ent Pope, in its ancient dimensions, (four hundred and eleven feet 
by two hundred and seventy-nine.) It is one of the noblest basilicas 
of Rome 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 513 

irious Leo of the pontiffs,* that, repairing the roof of the venerable 
St. Paul's after its fall, he trusted to him the renewal of the hall of so 
great a work. 

It appears that sometimes the primitive presbyters 
engaged in secular callings. Thus, an inscription from 
the Catacomb of Callixtus reads, AIONTCIOC nPECBT- 
TEPOC 1ATPOC — " Dionysius, presbyter and physician.' 
Another, of date A. D. 533, commemorates a deacon, 
who was also, perhaps before ordination, a senator and 
soldier. One found in Galatia mentions 9E0AQP0C 
nPECBTTEPOC KA1 APrYPOKOnoc — " Theodorus, a pres- 
byter and silversmith." Hyacinthus, a Roman presbyter 
of the third century, was also an officer of the imperial 
household. Tertullian complains that some engaged in 
idolatrous trades were promoted to ecclesiastical offi- 
ces.! Eusebius mentions a presbyter of Antioch who 
was head-master of one of the principal schools of the 
city.J Sozomen tells of bishops Zeno and Spiridion, 
who continued, the one to weave linen, the other to 
keep sheep, after elevation to the episcopal office. § In- 
deed, the fourth council of Carthage (A. D. 398) de- 
creed that the clergy might devote their leisure to trade 
or husbandry, that the church might have greater re- 
sources for charity. || 

* According to Bingham, Pontifex maximus was a title common 
to all bishops in primitive times. — Orig. Eccl., ii, § 6. 

There is here possibly a paronomasia on the word " Leo," lion of 
the pontiffs. There were sometimes several presbyters attached to 
one church. See De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., No. 975. 

f Adleguntur in ordinem ecclesiasticum artifices idolorum. — De 
Tdol., vii. 

\ Hist. Eccles., c. vii, 29. § Sozomen, i, 27, and vii, 28. 

J Clericus quantumlibet verbo Dei eruditus, artificio victum quse- 

rat. — Cone. Carth., 4, can. 51. The example of Paul, the tentmaker, 

who, though asserting the right of the ministry to a support, yet 

" wrought with labour and travail night and day," that he might not 

33 



S 14 The Catacombs of Rome. 

The next grade in ecclesiastical rank was that of the 
deacons. They acted generally as ' assistants of the 
bishops and presbyters, especially in the distribution of 
the charities of the church.* They also took part in the 
administration of the eucharist, but not in its consecra- 
tion. Before the appointment of lectors they read, and 
occasionally expounded, the Scriptures to the congrega- 
tion, like the modern lay preachers. They also acted as 
instructors or catechists of the catechumens of the 
church. They are frequently designated Levitce, \ from 
the fancied analogy of their functions to those of the 
Levitical order among the Jews. In the church at Rome 
there were only seven deacons, in accordance with the 
number originally appointed in the church at Jerusa- 
lem ; but in other cities the number was not thus lim- 
ited. J Of inferior dignity were the vnodtaitovoi, or sub- 
deacons, who assisted the deacons in the discharge of 
their lower functions, as the care of the sacramental 
vessels, and the like. 

Several epitaphs of both these classes have been 
found among the early Christian inscriptions. They are 
generally very brief, as the following : ivl diaconvs — 

be chargeable to the church, will occur to the reader. Chrysostom, 
speaking of the rural bishops of Antioch, says : " These men you may 
see sometimes yoking the oxen and driving the plough, and again 
ascending the pulpit and cultivating the souls mider their care ; now 
uprooting the thorns from the earth with a hook, and now purging 
oat the sins of the soul by the word." — Horn, ad Pop. Antioch., xix. 
" How glorious to see the gray-haired pastor approach, like Abraham, 
his loins girt, digging the giound and working with his own hands." 
— Horn in Act., xviii. 

* A similar office obtained in the Jewish synagogue, the E*iD3'-|0 
f This was especially the case in verse, as the word diaconus was 
unsuitable for hexameters. 

I Tn Constantinople there were more than one hundred deacons, and 
niwre than ninety sub-deacons. — Justin., Nov., iii, 1. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 5 1 5 

' Julius, the deacon ; " deps • felix • diac — " Felix, the 
deacon, buried (Mar. n, A. D. 435);" locvs exvpe- 
ranti diacon — " The place of Exuperantus, the dea- 
con." Beneath the church of Sts. Cosmo and Damien 
was found the following : hic reqviescit scvs habvn- 
dantivs diac et martyr — " Here reposes holy Abun- 
dantius, deacon and martyr."* 

The following are characteristic epitaphs of sub-dea- 
cons: HIC QVIESCIT APPIANVS SVBDIACONVS QVI VIXIT 

annvs xxxii dies xxvini — " Here rests Appianus, a sub- 
deacon, who lived thirty-two years, twenty-nine days ; " 

LOCVS MARCELLI SVBD • REG • SEXTAE CONCESSVM (sic) SIBI 
ET POSTERIS EIVS A BEATISSIMO PAPA IOANNE QVI VIXIT 

ann- plm • lxviii — " The place of Marcellus, a sub-dea- 
con of the sixth district,! conceded to him and his pos- 
terity by the most blessed Father John, J who lived 
sixty-eight years, more or less." (A. D. 564.) 

The first rank of the inferior officers of the church 
was that of the lectors or readers. It was their duty 
to read in the congregations the appointed lessons from 
the Holy Scriptures. § The office was held in peculiar 
honour, young men of noble family, especially, aspiring 
to its dignity. Thus the Emperor Julian, in his youth, 
was a reader of the church at Nicomedia, as was also 



* This was probably a memorial of a later period than the times 
of persecution. The epithet sanctus was not applied till compara- 
tively late. The office of deacon, however, was particularly obnox- 
ious to persecuting greed. Witness the martyrdom of Lawrence the 
deacon, antea. 

\ Rome was divided into seven ecclesiastical districts correspond- 
ing to its seven deacons. 

X John III., bishop of Rome. 

§ They are mentioned by Tertullian {De Prcesciip., c. 41) and 
Cyprian, (£/>., 24, 33,) and by .many later writers. The office was 
possibly derived from the Synagogue. 



5 1 6 The Catacombs of Rome. 

his brother Gallus.* Candidates for the office were or- 
dained by the ceremony of delivering the Gospels into 
their hands. According to one of the Novels of Jus- 
tinian,! tne y were required to be not less than eighteen 
years of age, but examples occur of their appointment 
as early as seven or eight years old. J Probably the lat- 
ter were dedicated by their parents, like Samuel, to the 
service of God from their infancy,§ and graduated 
through the inferior offices to those of greater dignity 
and influence. In the Western church they soon ceased 
as a distinct rank, but they lingered . in the conventual 
orders till a comparatively late period. 

The following are epitaphs of lectors from the Cata- 
combs and basilicas : eq heraclivs qvi fvit in saecv- 

LVM ANN • XVIIII • M • VII • D • XX • LECTOR R • SEC • FE- 
CERVNT • SIBI ET FILIO SVO BENEMERENTI • INP " Equi- 

tius Heraclius, who was in this world nineteen years, 
seven months, twenty days, a reader of the second 
district. * (His parents) made this for themselves and 
their well-deserving son, in peace ; " cinnamivs opas 

LECTOR TITVLl FACIOLI AMICVS PAVPERVM — " Cinnamius 

Opas, a reader of the church of Faciolus, a friend of 
the poor ; " mirae innocentiae adq • eximiae bonitatis 

HIC REQVIESCIT LEOPARDVS LECTOR DE PVDENTIANA QVI 

vixit ann. xxiiii — " Here rests Leopardus, of wonderful 
innocence and remarkable goodness, a reader of the 
church of Pudentiana, who lived twenty-four years ; " 

HIC REQVIESCIT IN SOMNO PACIS CAELIVS LAVRENTIVS 

* Socrat., iii, I. Sozom., v. 2. t cxxiii, c. 54. 

\ Leo X. was a priest at seven and a cardinal at ten. Among the 
five hundred clergy destroyed by the Vandal persecution in Carthage 
were many infant readers — quam plurimi erant lectores infantuli. — 
Victor de Persec. Vandal, lib. iii. 

§ On the tomb of a youth of fourteen occurs the words, votvs 
Dfc.o, " Dedicated to God." 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 5 1 7 

LECTOR SANCTAE ECCLESIAE AECLANENSIS QV1 VIXIT 

annos plm • xlviii — " Here rests, in the sleep of 
peace, Caelius Laurentius, a reader of the holy church 
of ujEclanum, who lived forty-eight years, more or 
less." 

The acolytes were another class which is discontinued 
in the protestant communion. As the name implies,* 
they were the servitors of the church, and had charge 
of the lamps and other ecclesiastical furniture. They 
were probably the offspring of the increasing pomp and 
dignity of the bishops, to whom they acted as personal 
attendants, especially in public processions and religious 
festivals. The only dated epitaphs of acolytes extant 
are of a comparatively late period. De Rossi thinks the 
following of the sixth or seventh century.f The sim- 
plicity of the primitive church had long since passed 
away, (p)ace abvndantivs acol • reg • qvartae tt 

VESTINAE QVI VIXIT ANN • XXXIII DEP • INP • D NAT • SCI 

marci — " In peace, Abundantius, an acolyte of the 
fourth district, of the church of Vestina, who lived 
thirty-three years. Buried in peace on the birthday of 
St. Mark." 

The office of exorcist, from the occult and mysteri- 
ous nature of its functions, was one that from the first 
was liable to abuse. It appears to have been known in 
the synagogue, and even there to have been usurped for 
base and venal purposes.^ A battle between supernal 

* 'AicoTiovdos, " A servant." 

f Cornelius, bishop of Rome in the third century, says there were 
in that church forty-two acolytes, (Euseb., H.E., vi, 43 ;) and, accord- 
ing to Eusebius, a great number attended the bishops at the council 
of Nice. 

\ See the vagabond Jew exorcists of Acts xix, 13. They were 
probably also magicians and soothsayers. Exorcism was common 
also among the pagan soothsayers, with whom the Christians were 



5 1 8 The Catacombs of Rome. 

and infernal powers seems to have been coincident with 
the conflict between Christianity and paganism. The 
Christians believed the oracles and idols of the gods to be 
animated by daemons, who frequently usurped possession 
also of human beings. Tertulliar*,* Origen,f and others 
of the Fathers, claim that any private Christian could 
exorcise these daemons by faith and prayer. It was 
probably a spiritual gift like that of " tongues," which 
was granted for a special purpose and. afterward with- 
drawn, perhaps on account of its abuse. This mysteri- 
ous function did not become a distinct office till the 
latter part of the third century, when the exorcists were 
set apart by special ordination, and furnished with spe- 
cial forms of adjuration. This rite was then generally 
performed with solemn ceremonial before the baptism 
of converts from paganism. It was accompanied by 
prayer, insufflation, imposition of hands, and the sign 
of the cross, in order to deliver the subject from the 
dominion of the Prince of Darkness, and to consecrate 
him to the service of God. In later days this office 
became subject to frightful abuse, and all the grotesque 
and horrible adjuncts of exorcism of the Roman church 
— the charms, conjurations, wearing of scapulars and rel- 
ics, incensings and sprinklings, were introduced — rites 
which find their analogues only in the magical incanta- 
tions of the medicine-men of the Caffre Kraal or the 

sometimes confounded. It is probable against them that a law of Ul- 
pian was directed, condemning those who used incantations, impre- 
cations, or, to use the common word of impostors, exorcisms — Si 
incantavit, si imprecatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo impostorum utar) 
exorcisavit. 

* Apol, 23. 

\ Cont. Cels., vii. Gregory Thaumaturgus, the Wonder-worker, 
won especial fame by his exploits of this nature. — Socrates, iv, 27. 
Antony, of Egypt, could detect dcemons by the sense of smell ! 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 5 19 

Indian lodge.* " The best exorcism," says Tertullian, 
" is by watchfulness and prayer to resist the devil, and 
cast out evil thoughts." The following are epitaphs of 
exorcists : ianvarivs exorcist a — " Januarius the exor- 
cist J " HIC REQVIESCIT • IN • SOMNO • PACIS • CAELIVS ■ 

iohannis exhorcista (sic) — " Here rests, in the sleep 
of peace, Cselius John, an exorcist." 

The energumens, or possessed persons, were com- 
mitted to the especial care of the exorcists, who em- 
ployed them in the secular service of the sanctuary, as 
sweeping and cleaning the church, "lest idleness should 
become a temptation for Satan to molest them." There 
is no indication of the existence of this unhappy class 
of persons in the church of the Catacombs, at least so 
far as monumental evidence is concerned. 

A very numerous class in the economy of the prim- 
itive church was that of the fossors, or grave-diggers, 
by whose labours these vast labyrinths were exca- 
vated. They seem to have had especial charge of the 
subterranean cemeteries, and we have had -numerous 
examples of the transfer and sale of graves under their 
authority.f They had also a quasi-ecclesiastical rank, 
and were subject to ecclesiastical discipline. " The 
first order of the clergy," says Jerome, " is that of the 
fossors, who, after the manner of holy Tobit, are em- 
ployed in burying the dead." J They probably also 

* A somewhat analogous practice to the ancient exorcism was th? t 
of touching for king's evil, for which there was a recognized form i ,i 
the prayer-book of the time of George II. — De Strumosis Attrectan- 
dis. Charles II. " touched " one hundred thousand persons. 

f See ante, p. 132. 

\ Primus in clericis fossarioram ordo est, etc. — De Sept. Ord. Eccies. 
They were also called lecticarii, from their carrying the corpse on a 
lectica or bier, and copiatce, a word of uncertain origin. Constantine 
organized the copiat<e into a corporation at Constantinople, where 
they numbered four hundred. Compare the Parabolani of Alexandria. 



520 The Catacombs of Rome. 

assisted the regular clergy in the celebration of the fu- 
neral rites. The melancholy office of this pious confra- 
ternity, always a sad necessity of humanity, was particu- 
larly so to the persecuted church of the Catacombs. 

The excavations were evidently under one directorate, 
so symmetrica] and uniform is their character. A con- 
siderable degree of architectural skill is exhibited in the 
construction and adornment of the subterranean chapels, 
many of which are of quite ornamental design, and in 
the excavation of the multitude of galleries and differ- 
ent levels of this vast city of the dead, proving that the 
fossors were no mean civil engineers. They were also 
probably the artists of the rude inscriptions. The office 
seems sometimes to have been hereditary, as we find as 
many as three generations of fossors in the same family. 
We have seen examples of the numerous frescoes repre- 
senting these lowly diggers at work, often like miners, 
by the light of a lamp, or surrounded by the implements 
of their calling.* The following are characteristic epi- 
taphs of this class: maio fossori — "To Maius, the 
fossor;" felix fossor vixit annis lxii— " Felix, the 
fossor. He lived seventy-two years ; " diogenes • fos- 
sor • in • pace • depositvs — " Diogenes, the fossor, buried 
in peace." 

With these were probably confounded in the earlier 
ages the ostiarii, or door-keepers. Their office was one 
of great trust and responsibility in times of persecution, 
when the Christian worship had often to be celebrated 
in secret, and protected from the intrusion of spies or 
of the profanely curious heathen. It was their duty to 
distinguish between the faithful and scoffers and traitors, 
and to give private notice of the secret assemblies 
of the Christians. The following inscription of the 
* See Figs. 23, 24. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 521 

sixth century, as restored by De Rossi, commemorates a 
similar office in the basilica : loc • deci • cvbicvlari • 
hvivs • basilicae — " The place of Decius, custodian of 
this basilica." We have also the epitaph of a mansiona- 
fius, a similar officer.* 

* With the increase of wealth and the progress of learning in the 
Christian community, the number and variety of clerical offices was 
greatly multiplied, and all the paraphernalia of pomp and gorgeous 
ritual were added. A multitude of inferior ecclesiastical dependants 
hung upon the church, absorbing its strength, corrupting its virtue, 
and degrading its character. The knowledge of their very names 
and offices has become a difficult task. Thus we have sacristarii, or 
keepers of the sacred vestments and vessels ; cappellani, or attendants 
on the altar ; matricularii, or marshals of the public processions ; 
staurophori, or cross bearers ; ceroferarii and thuriferarii, the bearers 
of tapers and incense ; and parafrenarii, or coachmen of the higher 
ecclesiastics — the latter, according to Mabillon, being themselves reck- 
oned among the clergy. There were also ceconomi, or stewards of 
church lands ; thesanrii, or treasurers of ecclesiastical funds ; notarii, 
or secretaries ; apocrisiarii, or legates ; cancellarii, or chancellors ; 
syndici, or syndics ; and hermeneutai, or interpreters, chiefly in the 
Syrian and African churches, where the congregation used different 
languages — speaking to the people in an unknown tongue is a Rom- 
ish innovation. Even the offices of highest dignity were indefinitely 
multiplied. There were several orders of bishops: — metropolitans, 
archbishops, patriarchs, primates, and exarchs ; bishops diocesan, 
bishops quiescentes, that is, without charges, and titular bishops with 
charges in partibus infidelium ; suffragan bishops and chorepiscopi ; 
cardinals and vicars general ; and many other officers of lordly titles, 
princely wealth, and vast political power. But of these we find no 
examples, no prototypes in the epitaphs of the Catacombs, nor in the 
lowly pastors of the persecuted flock of Christ in the primitive ages 
of the church. The application of the title of pope with its present 
signification to the early bishops is a ludicrous anachronism and mis- 
nomer, as nothing could be further from the reality than the idea 
which it now suggests. 

Like the vine, which, twining round some noble elm, seems to en- 
hance its beauty, but in time completely stifles its strength in its 
strangling embrace, so the rank growth of human institutions has 
strangled the life of the goodly tree of Roman Christi i lity, and 



522 The Catacombs of Rome. 

An exaggerated commendation of the supposed supe- 
rior sanctity of single life has long been a prominent 
characteristic of Romanism. A natural corollary of 
this notion was the enforced celibacy of the clergy.* 
Upon the Procrustean bed of this iron rule Rome has 
not scrupled to bind the tenderest and most sacred af- 
fections of the human soul. This cherished, but, as all 
history proves, most pernicious practice, has been the 
secret of much of the marvellous power of the priest- 
hood and of the religious orders. The suppression of 
the domestic affections but intensified their devotion to 
the cause of the church, which took the place of both 
wife and child, and engrossed all their thoughts and all 
their energies. They became a priestly caste, ani- 
mated by a strong esprit de corps superior to the claims 
of kindred or of country. But, as might have been 
anticipated, this anti-natural system led to fright- 
ful abuses and corruptions, and to the most flagrant 
innovations. 

The notion of the greater sanctity of celibacy was 
derived, not from the teachings of our Lord or the 
apostles, who recognized the essential purity of mar- 
riage ; but probably, as Milman suggests, from the early 
heresy of the Gnostics, of which this doctrine was a 
prominent characteristic. \ " There was no enforced 

blighted the promise of its early years. Forms of ritual should be 
but the trellis for the support of a spiritual worship ; else, better that, 
like the brazen serpent, they be broken in pieces, and, like the body 
of Moses, buried in an unknown sepulchre, than become the objects 
of idolatrous homage or of superstitious veneration. 

* It was a primitive and probably correct opinion that all the apos- 
tles were married except Paul and John — Omnes apostoli, exceptis 
Johanne et Paulo, uxores habuerunt. — Ambros., ad Hilar. ; Clem. 
Alex., Strom., iii ; Euseb., H. E., iii, 30; Orig., Com. in Ro?n. 

\ It was probably derived by them from the Essenes and other as- 
cetic communities of the East 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 523 

celibacy during the first three centuries," says the judi- 
cious Bingham.* Indeed, marriage was regarded as 
enjoined on bishops, elders, and deacons, by the coun- 
sel of St. Paul.f The occasional passages of Scripture, 
in which for temporary and special reasons a single life 
is recommended, were in course of time wrested from 
their obvious meaning to a more general application ; 
and in the writings of some of the Fathers, marriage 
was regarded as a necessary evil, only to be tolerated 
for the perpetuation of the race, and on account of the 
infirmity of the weak. It was not till the fourth cen- 
tury that the church adopted the doctrine of devils 
spoken of by St. Paul as " forbidding to marry." The 
earliest ecclesiastical legislation on the subject was at 
the Spanish council of Elvira, A. D. 305, which com- 
manded ecclesiastics who were married to separate from 
their wives — abstinere se a conjugibus ski's — thus ruth- 
lessly putting asunder those whom God had joined. 
The synods of Ancyra and Neo Csesarea, held ten years 
later, and also one of the so-called apostolic canons of 
the same date, reversed this decree, and forbade any 
ecclesiastic to put away his wife on the plea of religion, 
under penalty of excommunication, which action was 
confirmed by the great council of Nice. J Successive 
attempts to extirpate the tenderest human instincts 
only led to their illicit gratification, and to the scandals 
arising from the admission of mulieres subintroductce, or, 

* Orig. Eccles., iv, 4. 

f I Tim. ii, 2, 12 ; Titus i, 6. So the Greek Church still under- 
stands him, requiring the marriage of its clergy. Tertullian, Cyprian, 
Gregory of Nyssa, Hilary of Poitiers, Spyridon, Synesius, and many 
other distinguished ecclesiastics of early times, are recorded to have 
been married. 

\ Socrat., i, n ; Sozum., i, 23. " Maniage is the true chastity," 
exclaimed the aged bishop Paphnutius. 



5 24 The Catacombs of Rome. 

in other words, of concubines. So demoralized did the 
clergy thereby become, that during the Middle Ages, 
as Mr. Lea remarks, " though the ancient canons were 
still theoretically in force, they were practically obsolete 
every-where."* At length Luther led the great eman- 
cipation of the clergy from this burden, so unutterably 
grievous to many a tender conscience ; and removed the 
stigma of disgrace from those domestic relations which 
God, who setteth the solitary in families, so signally 
blesses. 

There is no trace of the ascetic spirit or celibate 
clergy of the Church of Rome in the inscriptions of the 
Catacombs. On the contrary, numerous epitaphs com- 
memorate the honourable marriage of members of every 
ecclesiastical grade. Thus, in the highest rank, Gruterf 
gives the following, which is thought to be that of Libe- 
rius, bishop of Rome, who died A. D. 366, and who 
was sometimes known by the name of Leo : 

HVNC MIHI COMPOSVIT TVMVLVM LAVRENTIA CONIVX 
MORIBVS APTA MEIS SEMPER VENERANDA FIDELIS 



* Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 162. The satirical songs, tales, and 
scandalous anecdotes concerning the celibate clergy, and the denun- 
ciations of their vice by successive councils, attest the social deprav- 
ity caused by this system. The ascetic depreciation of woman led 
also inevitably to her moral degradation. She was described by some 
of the monkish writers, who thus slandered the memory of their own 
mothers, as a noxious animal, the very essence of evil and gate of 
hell, whose beauty was a lure of the devil and perpetual temptation 
to sin, and her very presence a contamination. The tenderest family 
ties were severed at the fancied call of duty. In Roman Catholic 
countries woman is still immured with almost oriental jealousy, and 
is denied the intellectual emancipation her sex elsewhere enjoys. She 
may not enter the most sacred places of Rome, nor visit the pope, 
except in mourning. There is no music for the female voice in the 
service of the papal chapel. 

I Imcrip. Antiq. % p. 1173. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 525 

INVIDIA INFELIX TANDEM COMPRESSA QVIESCIT 
OCTOGINTA LEO TRANSCENDIT EPISCOPVS ANNOS. 

My wife Laurentia made me this tomb ; she was ever suited to my 
disposition, venerable and faithful. At length disappointed envy lies 
crushed ; the bishop Leo survived his eightieth year. 

De Rossi gives the following, of a bishop's son, of 
date A. D. 404. The relationship is boldly acknowl- 
edged, and not yet disguised under the phrase nepos or 
nephew : victor in pace filivs episcopi victoris civ- 
itatis vcrensivm — " Victor, in peace, son of Bishop 
Victor, of the city of the Ucrenses." The following, 
of date A. D. 445, was found at Narbonne : rvsticvs • 
epis • epi • bonosi • filivs .... " Bishop Rusticus, son 
of Bishop Bonosus." 

There are also numerous inscriptions in which pres- 
byters and deacons lament the death of their wives, 
" chaste, just, and holy." " Would to God," exclaims 
a writer in the Revue Chr'etienne, " that all their succes- 
sors had such." The following are examples : gav- 

DENTIVS • PRESBYTER • SIBI ET CONIVGI SVAE SEVERAE 
CASTAE HAC (sic) SANCTISSIMAE FEMINAE — " Gaudentius 

the presbyter, for himself and his wife Severa, a chaste 
and most holy woman; " locvs basili presb et felici- 
tati eivs. ..." The place of Basil the presbyter, and 
of Felicitas, his (wife)." Observe also the tender recog- 
nition of family ties in the following : olim presbyteri 

GABINI FILIA FELIX HIC SVSANNA IACET IN PACE PATRI 

SOCIATA — " Once the happy daughter of the presbyter Ga- 
binus, here lies Susanna, joined to her father in peace." 
We have already seen the epitaph of " Petronia, the 
wife of a deacon, the type of modesty," with whom 
were buried two of her children.* The following, of 

* See ante, p. 428. The following is from Salonre : fl • ivlivs 
DIACONVS ET AVRELIA >l£RrA CONIVX EIVS HOC SARCOFAGVM (sir) 



526 The Catacombs of Rome. 

similar character, is accompanied by the epitaph of a 
deacon on the same stone, probably the husband who so 
tenderly lamented the loss of his faithful consort. 

LEVITAE CONIVX SEMPER MIHI GRATA MARIA 
EXITVS ISTE TVVS PROSTRAVIT CORDA TYORVM 
PERPETVAS NOBIS LACRIMAS LVCTVMQVE RELINQVENS 
CASTA GRAVIS SAPIENS SIMPLEX VENERANDA FIDELIS 
COMPLEVIT TVA VOTA DEVS TE NAMQVE MARITVS 
TE NATI DEFLENT NEC MORS TIBI SVSTVLIT VLLVM. 
Maria, the wife of a deacon, ever well-pleasing to me. That de- 
parture of thine prostrated the hearts of thy friends, leaving perpet- 
ual tears and grief to us. Chaste, grave, wise, simple, venerable, 
faithful. God fulfilled thy wishes ; for thee thy husband, thee thy 
children bewail, nor did death bear any away from thee. (A. D. 451.) 

Epitaphs are also found indicating the prevalence of 
marriage in the inferior ecclesiastical ranks, as in the 
following examples : clavdivs atticanvs lector et 
clavdia felicissima conivx — " Claudius Atticanus, the 
reader, and Claudia Felicissima, his wife ; " * ianva- 

RIVS EXORCISTA • SIBI • ET • CONIVGI • FECIT " Janua- 

rius, the exorcist, made this for himself and his wife ; " 

TERENTIVS • FOSOR • (sic) • PRIMITIVE (sic) • CONIVGI • 

et • sibi • — "Terentius, the fossor, for Primitiva, his. 
wife and himself." 

The primitive church early availed itself of the ser- 
vices of godly women, a sort of female diaconate, for 
the administration of charity, the care of the sick, the 
instruction of the young, and of their own sex, and to 
carry the light and consolations of the gospel into the 
most private and delicate relations of life, for which 

sibi vivi posvervnt— "Flavius Julius, a deacon, and Aurelia Me- 
ria, his wife, while living, erected this sarcophagus for themselves." 
See, also, the epitaph of Tettius Felicissimus, p. 474. 

* The following is from the island of Salamis : Ot/coc aluviot 
' kyaduvog avayvwGTov ko.1 Evdijuiag ..." The everlasting dwelling of 
Ag-atho, a reader, and Euphemia. . . ." She was probably, his wife. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 527 

•.hese gentle ministrants possessed facilities denied to 
the other sex. They are frequently mentioned in the 
writings of the Fathers under the names of didfcovoi* 
deaconesses, vidua:, widows, or ancillce Dei, handmaids 
of God. In apostolic times they were required to be 
of the mature age of sixty years ;f but widows, and even 
the unmarried, were subsequently admitted into this 
class as early as forty,J or even twenty, § years of age. 
The unmarried, however, assumed no vow of perpetual 
celibacy, |j nor of conventual life, but lived privately in 
their own homes, employed in offices of piety and mercy. 
The growing esteem of celibacy, however, in the fourth 
and fifth centuries, invoked ecclesiastical censure for 
the abandonment of the lofty vantage ground of virgin- 
hood ; 1" but the Imperial law granted liberty of mar- 

* Thus, St. Paul calls Phoebe a (kuKovog, translated " servant," of 
the church at Cenchria. — Hom.,xvi, I. The Christian ancillce qtuz 
ministry dicebantur, whom Pliny tortured, were probably of this 
class. 

f 1 Tirn. v, 9. 

X Concil. Chalcedon, c. 14. 

§ Tertul., de Veland. Virgin., c. 9. Olympias, a Christian matron 
of Constantinople, of noble rank, widowed at eighteen, became a 
deaconess, and devoted her immense fortune to charity. She was 
long the devoted patroness of the persecuted Chrysostom. 

1 Cypr., Ep., 62. 

T[ The Fathers are enthusiastic in the praise of perpetual virginity. 
" It has the higher dignity, as vessels of gold and silver compared to 
earthenware," says Jerome. — Adv. Jovin. " The thirty-fold increase 
of Scripture." he asserts, " refers to marriage, the sixty-fold to widow- 
hood, but the hundred-fold to virginity." — Ad Agemchiam. " Mar- 
riage replenishes earth," he adds; "but virginity, heaven " — Nup- 
tise terram replent, virginitas paradisum. " These sacred virgins are 
the necklace of the church," says Prudentius, " and with these gems 
she is adorned " — Hoc est monile ecclesiae ! His ilia gemmis comi- 
tur ! — Peristeph., H., 3. They became in a mystical sense the spous- 
es of Christ, and Jerome blasphemously addresses the mother of 
Eustochium as the mother-in-law of God — Socrus Dei esse, coepisti 



528 The Catacombs of Rome. 

riage, if the order had been entered Defore the age of 
forty. How different the practice of Rome in binding 
young girls, in the first outburst of religious enthusiasm, 
or the first bitterness of disappointed hope, by irrevoca- 
ble vows to a death-in-life, and indissolubly riveting 
those bonds, no matter how the chafed soul may repu- 
diate the rash vow, and writhe beneath the galling yoke. 
The consecrated virgin of the early church, instead of 
the ghastly robings, like the cerements of the grave, in 
which the youthful nun is swathed, the symbol of her 
social death, wore a sacrum velamen, or veil, differing but 
little from that of Christian matrons, and a fillet of gold 
around her hair. The custom, now part of the Romish 
ritual, of despoiling the head of its natural adorning, was 
especially denounced by some of the ancient councils. 

There are several of the early Christian inscriptions il- 
lustrative of these various classes of consecrated women, 
of which the following are examples : oc • ta • vi • ae • 
ma • tro • n ae • vi • dv • ae • de • i. — " To the matron Octa- 
via, a widow of God; " hic qviescit gavdiosa cf ancil- 
la dei qvae vixit annos xl et men v — " Here rests 
Gaudiosa, a most distinguished woman, a handmaid of 
God, who lived forty years and five months," (A. D. 

447) ; IN HOC SEPVLCHRO REQVIESCIT PVELLA VIRGO 

sacra b • m • Alexandra — " In this tomb rests a girl, a 
sacred virgin, Alexandra, well deserving ; " hoc est 
sepvlcrvm sanctae lvcinae virginis — " This is the 
sepulchre of the holy virgin Lucina" — this, however, 
may not indicate a special class. aestonia. virgc 

PEREGRINA QVAE VIXIT ANNOS XLI | ET • DS • VIII (sic)— 

— Ad Eustoch. Both Jerome and Chrysostom, however, acknowl 
edged, and unsparingly lashed, the evils to which the celibate systen* 
in their time had led. " She is the true virgin," says the latter, '' who 
careth for the things that belong to the Lord." 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 5 29 

" ^Estonia, a travelling virgin, who lived forty-one years 
and eight days " — she was probably a member of a dis- 
tant church, received on a letter of recommendation , 
fvria helphis (sic) virgo devota — " Furia Elpis, a 
consecrated virgin." In the fifth century this consecra- 
tion sometimes took place at an early age, as the following 
example, of date A. D. 401 : prie {sic) ivnias pavsabet 

(sic) PRAETIOSA ANNORVM PVLLA (sic) VIRGO XII TANTVM 

ancilla dei et christi — " On the day before (the Cal- 
ends of) June Praetiosa went to her rest, a young maiden 
of only twelve years of age, a handmaid of God and of 
Christ."* 

There is no trace in the inscriptions of the Catacombs 
of that ascetic spirit from which, in the fourth and fol- 
lowing centuries, sprang the strange phenomena of 
monachism, with its important influence for blended 
good and evil on the future of Christendom. That 
was rather the result of the decay and corruption of 
primitive Christianity, and of the despair of mankind as 
to its regenerative power upon the world. Hence, 
multitudes fled from the immedicable evils of society 
to the solitude of the desert or the mountain, f Prim- 
itive Christianity, on the contrary, was eminently 
cheerful and social in its character. It consecrated 
the family life, and developed, to a degree before un- 
known, the domestic virtues. 

The care of the primitive church for the religious 
teaching of the young and of heathen converts is 

* In one example, of date A. D. 525, we find the phrase NONNAE 
Ancillae DEI, in which we see, perhaps, the origin of our word nun. 
Jerome had previously applied the word nonnce to either widows or 
virgins professing chastity. — Ad Eustoch., c. 6. 

•J- See article on " The Rise of Monachism," by the present 
writer, in London Quarterly Reviezv, October, 1S73. 
34 



53° The Catacombs of Rome. 

abundantly exemplified in the inscriptions of the Cata- 
combs. The catechumens, or learners, as the word 
signifies — the " Cadets of Christianity " — were a dis- 
tinctly recognized class for whose instruction especial 
provision was made. It consisted of the children of 
believers born in the church, and therefore peculiarly 
under its care ; and also of converts from paganism 
who needed to be weaned from their errors, and taught 
the doctrines of Christianity before admission to the 
sacraments of baptism and the holy eucharist. For 
the latter, as a safeguard against the rash assumption 
of the Christian vows and the danger of subsequent 
apostacy, a certain probation was prescribed.* The 
candidates were taught the Holy Scriptures, and a formal 
confession of faith, probably similar to the ancient 
creed in which the Christian belief of the church has 
for so many centuries been expressed. These instruc- 
tions were given by the bishop himself as chief cate- 
chist; and also by the presbyters, deacons, lectors, and 
other members of the inferior ministry. Deaconesses 
and aged women acted as instructresses of their own 
sex ; and one of these was always present during the 
questioning of the female catechumens by the male 
catechists. 

The following engraving represents a chamber in the 
Catacomb of St. Agnes, which, it is conjectured, was 
employed for the instruction of the female catechu- 
mens. On either side of the doorway are seats or 
chairs hewn out of the solid tufa, which were probably 
occupied by the catechist and the presiding deaconess 
The low stone bench running around the remaining walls 

* This was not of uniform duration. The Council of Elvira, 
(c. 24,) indeed, prescribed two years, but the length of the period 
varied in different places. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 



531 



of the chamber would conveniently accommodate the 
audientes, or hearers, as they were called. 




Fig. 1 30.— Chamber in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, with seats 
for Catechists and Catechumens. 



Some Roman Catholic writers have asserted that these 
chambers were confessionals : but the chairs are too far 
apart if one was for the confessor and the other for the 
penitent, especially with an open door between ; and 
too near, from the liability of the confessions being 
overheard, if each was a confessional ; and in either 
case the necessity for the stone bench cannot be con- 
ceived. In some chambers, probably for the male cat- 
echumens, there is only one tufa chair, no deaconess 
being present. 

Another curious chamber in the Catacomb of St. Ag- 
nes communicates with the one adjacent to it by a 



532 The Catacombs of Rome. 

circular opening cut through the tufa wall about breast- 
high. It is conjectured that this was for the purpose 
of allowing the catechumens to hear the public instruc- 
tions of the faithful without witnessing the celebration 
of the sacraments. The zeal of the candidates would 
thus b'e the more inflamed,* that they might be found 
worthy of admission to the fulness of Christian privi- 
lege and to the sacred mysteries hidden from the unin- 
itiate and the unworthy. The following epitaph from 
the Lapidarian Gallery commemorates a youthful cate- 
chumen : VCILIANVS BACIO VALF.RIO QVE BISET . (sic) ANN 

vim • men -viii • dies xxii catecvm — " Ucilianus to Ba- 
cius Valerius, a catechumen, who lived nine years, eight 
months and twenty-two days." 

The ordinance of baptism receives several illustra- 
tions from the monumental evidences of the Catacombs. 
There are numerous epitaphs of neophytes— a term ap- 
plied only to newly baptized persons — which indicate 
that this Christian rrte was administered at all ages from 
tender infancy to adult years ; in the latter case the sub- 
jects being probably recent converts from heathenism. 
The following are examples of this class : teg • candidis 
neof q • vxt • m • xxi — " The tile of Candidus, a neo- 
phyte, who lived twenty-one months ; " fl • iovina • 

QVAE • VIX • ANNIS • TRIBVS • D • XXX • NEOFITA • IN 

pace — " Flavia Jovina, who lived three years and thirty 
days, a neophyte, in peace ; " mirae indvstriae adqve 

BONITATIS . . . INNOCENTIA PREDITVS FL • AVR • LEONI . 
NEOFITO QVI VIXIT ANN VI • MENS • VIII DIES XI . . . " 111- 

nocentia Preditus to Flavius Aurelius Leo, a neophyte 
of wonderful industry and goodness, who lived six years, 
eight months, eleven days ; " romano neofito bene me- 

* " Tanto ardentius concupiscantur, quantp honorabilius occultan- 
tur," says Augustine, of this very practice. — In Johan., 96. 



Prim itive R itcs and Ins titutions. 533 

RENTI QVI VIXIT • ANNOS • VIII • D • XV • REQVIESCIT IN 

pace — " To the well-deserving neophyte Roinanus, who 
lived eight years and fifteen days; he rests in peace." 
We have already seen the epitaph of Junius Bassus, who 
died a neophyte at the age of forty-one, and shall pres- 
ently observe other instances of adult baptism.* We 
find also the epitaph of " two innocent brothers, one 
a neophyte, the other, one of the faithful." 

* The following resume, of the principal patristic evidence on the 
practice of infant baptism is corroborated by the testimony of the 
Catacombs. We omit the passages from Clement and Hermes Pas- 
tor, which imply its prevalence in the first century, as being rathei 
vague. Justin Martyr, about A. D. 148, speaks of persons sixty and 
seventy years old who had been made disciples of Christ (ifiadrjrevdriaav, 
the very word employed in Matt, xxviii, 19,) in their infancy, {Apol., 
2,) and compares the rite of baptism to that of circumcision. — Dial. 
c. Tryph. Irenseus expressly speaks of " infants, little ones, children, 
youth, and the aged, as regenerated unto God," which phrase he else- 
where applies to baptism — Infantes et parvulos, et pueros, et ju- 
venes, et seniores. — Lib. ii, c. 39. Tertullian, indeed, in the third 
century, recommends the delay of baptism, especially in the case of 
infants — Cunctatio baptismi utilior est, prsecipue tamen circa par- 
vulos — an indication of the Montanist heresy, into which he fell, 
which regarded post-baptismal sins as inexpiable. — De Baptis., c. 18. 
The practice, however, continued, and Origen expressly asserts that 
little children were baptized for the remission of sins (Parvuli bap- 
tizantur in remissionem peccatorum — Horn., 14, in Luc.,) which 
custom, he says, the church handed down from the apostles — Ec- 
clesia ab apostolis traditionem suscepit. — Id., in Rom., v. 6. When 
the question arose, in the third century, not whether baptism should 
be administered to infants, but whether it should be administered 
before the eighth day, Cyprian and a council of sixty-six African 
1 ishops unanimously decreed that the rite should be denied to none, 
even in earliest infancy — Universi potius judicavimus, nulli hominum 
nato misericordiam Dei et gratiam denegandam. — Cypr. Ep. 59, ad 
Fidum. " And this," says Augustine, " is no new doctrine, but of 
apostolic authority " — Nee omnino credenda, nisi apostolica esse tra- 
ditio. — De Genesi ad Liter am., x. The later Fathers abound in 
similar testimonies. The infant children of heathen converts were 
baptized immediately, and the older ones when instructed. — Cod. 



534 The Catacomhs of Rome. 

In course of time the rite of baptism degenerated into 
a superstitious charm, and was regarded as a mystical 
lustration which washed away all sin and was essential 
to salvation.* This change probably resulted from a 
leaction against the Pelagian heresy, which denied the 
necessity of baptism, and from the rhetorical exaggera- 
tion by the Fathers of the spiritual efficacy of this sac- 
rament, f The church of the Catacombs, while duly 
administering the rite of baptism, did not, after the man- 
ner of the Church of Rome and other modern extreme 
sacramentalists, invest it with regenerative power, nor 

Justin., i, n, Leg. 10. Orphans, foundlings, and even the children 
of heathens, received this sacred rite. At an early period the eucha- 
rist was administered to infants, which was of necessity preceded by 
baptism. 

* Hence, when a person died unbaptized, a living substitute some- 
times received the rite in his stead. Fulgentius indeed asserts, that 
unbaptized children, even if they die " in uteris matrum," are pun- 
ished with everlasting punishment in eternal fire — ignis asterni sempi- 
terno supplicio puniendos. — De Fide ad Peir., 27. But he alone of 
the Fathers expresses this abominable opinion. Augustine and Am- 
brose, though insisting on the importance of baptism, admit that the 
faith and repentance — fidem conversionemque cordis — of those who 
die while piously preparing therefor may suffice in its stead. — Aug., 
de Bap., iv, 22. 

f In bold and unwarrantable metaphor some of the Fathers speak 
of the waters of baptism as changed in mystical transubstantiation 
into the very cleansing blood of Christ. 

The prevalence of the Montanist heresy, which regarded as inex- 
piable all sins committed after baptism, led many to postpone its re- 
ception, although this practice was strongly censured by the church 
Thus, Constantine remained a catechumen till his sixty-fifth year, and 
received baptism — " ifivfjdr)" says Sozomen, (ii, 34,) literally, "was 
initiated," — just before his death. An inscription at St. John's Lat- 
eran asserts his baptism by Sylvester many years previously : CON- 
STANTINVS PER CRVCEM VICTOR A S. SILVESTRO BAPTIZATVS CRVCIS 
gloriam propagavit: but Dr. Dollinger has shown the entirely 
mythical character of the legend. — Fables respecting the Popes, etc., 
by Jn. G. Ign. Von Dollinger. 1872. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 535 

regard its involuntary omission as excluding the body 
from consecrated ground and the soul from heaven.* 

Sometimes, by a beautiful metonyme derived from its 
spiritual significance, baptism is indicated as the palin- 
genesis, or new birth, of which it is the appropriate sym- 
bol. The following is a characteristic example of this 
usage : . . . caeleste renatvs aqva {sic) — . . . " Born 
again of heavenly water," (A. D. 377.) f We read also 
of a certain Mercurius, who is described as a boy born 
and dying in the .same year, aged twenty-four. The 
allusion is to the spiritual regeneration symbolized by 
baptism. With reference to this he was but a boy — 
puer — at the time of his death. J This rite was also 
called illumination, and we find in the Catacombs the 
epitaphs of persons said to be thus " newly illuminated." 

The testimony of the Catacombs respecting the mode 
of baptism, as far as it extends, is strongly in favour of 
aspersion or affusion. All their pictured representations 
of the rite indicate this mode, for which alone the early 
fonts seem adapted ; nor is there any early art evidence of 
baptismal immersion. It seems incredible, if the latter 
were the original and exclusive mode, of apostolic 
and even Divine authority, that it should have left no 
trace in the earliest and most unconscious art-record, 
and have been supplanted therein by a new, unscript- 
nral, and unhistoric method. It is apparent, indeed, 
from the writings of the fourth and fifth century, that 
many corrupt and unwarranted usages were introduced 
in connection with this Christian ordinance that greatly 

* See the epitaph of an unbaptized catechumen already given. 

f In a Christian epitaph from Aquileia, of date A. D. 734, wc 
find the scriptural formula — ex aqua et Spu renatus — " born again of 
water and the Spirit." — Muratori, Nov. Thesaur., p. 1849. 

% See McCaul, Christian Epitaphs, p. 64. 



J36 The Catacombs of Rome. 

marred its beauty and simplicity. It is unquestionable 
that at that time baptism by immersion was practised 
with many superstitious and unseemly rites. The sub- 
jects, both men and women, were divested of their 
clothing, to represent the putting off the body of sin ; 
which, notwithstanding the greatest efforts to avoid it, 
inevitably provoked scandal. They then received trien 
immersion, to imitate, says Gregory Nyssen,* the three 
days' burial of Christ ; or, according to others, as a symbol 
of the Trinity. The rite was accompanied by exorcism, 
insufflation, unction, confirmation, the gift of milk and 
honey, the administration of the eucharist even to in- 
fants, the clothing in white garments, and carrying of 
lighted tapers, to all of which a mystical meaning was 
attached. 

But in the evidences of the Catacombs, which are the 
testimony of an earlier and purer period, there is no 
indication of this mode of baptism, nor of these dra- 
matic accompaniments. f The marble font represented 
in the accompanying engraving, now in the crypts of St. 
Prisca within the walls, is said to have come from the 

* De Bapt. Christ. 

f Cyprian argues for the validity of baptism by sprinkling, when 
immersion is inconvenient, as in the case of the sick, prisoners, etc., 
as follows : " In baptism the spots of sin are otherwise washed away 
than is the filth of the body in a secular and carnal washing, in which 
is need of a bath, soap, and the like. The heart of the believer is 
otherwise washed ; the mind of man is cleansed by the merit of faith " 
— Neque enim sic in sacramento salutari delictorum contagia, tit in 
lavacro carnali et seculari sordes cutis et corporis abluuntur, etc. — 
Ep. ad Magnum. 

Thus, we read that St. Lawrence baptized with only a pitcher of 
water — urceum afferens cum aqua — and by pouring water on the head 
of the subject — fundit aquam super caput. — Acta Laurentii. Ter- 
tullian also speaks of the "aspersion of water" in baptism — asper- 
ginem aquae. — De Pcenitent., 6. 




Primitive Rites and Institutions. 537 

Catacombs, and to have been used for baptismal pur- 
poses by St. Petei 
himself; in corro^' 
oration of which 
legend it bears the 
somewhat apocry- 
phal inscription — 

SCI • PET • B APTISM V • 

(sic.) The tradition 
at least attests its 
extreme antiquity ; 
and its basin is 
quite too small for 
even infant immer- 
sion. Other fonts 
have been found in 
several of the sub- Fiff " 131, "Baptismal Font, 

terranean chapels, among which is one in the Catacomb 
of Pontianus, hewn out of the solid tufa and fed by a 
living stream. It is thirty-six inches long, thirty-two 
inches wide, and forty inches deep, but is seldom near 
full of water. It is obviously too small for immersion, 
and was evidently designed for administering the rite as 
shown in the fresco which accompanies it. (See Fig. 132.) 
The following inscription, from the Lapidarian Gallery, 
seems to have come from some such font, and perhaps 
contains a reference to the scripture, " Arise and be 
baptized, and wash away thy sins :" corporis et cordis 

MACVLAS VITALIS PVRGAT ET OMNE SIMVL ABLVIT VNDA 

— " The living stream cleanses the spots of the body as 
well as the heart, and at the same time washes away 
all (sins)."* 

* The so-called be7iitiers, or holy water vessels of the Catacombs, 
were, it is likely, in some cases at least, baptismal vases. The Rom- 



53^ 



The Catacombs of Rome. 




Fig. 132— The Baptism of Our Lord. 

Immediately over the font in the Catacomb of Pon- 
tianus is the elaborate fresco of the baptism of Our 
Lord, figured above. He is represented standing in 
ish " holy water " is probably copied from the aqua lustralis o f the 



pagans, 



which stood at the door of the temples, and into which the 
worshipper on entering and leaving dipped his fingers. In striking 
analogy to Romish usage, the pagan priest sprinkled the multitude 
with the holy dew by means of an aspergillum, or light brush — 

Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda 

Spargens rore levi. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 



539 



/4f^ 



'X, 



£W 



the river Jordan, while John pours water upon his head, 
and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. 
An angel stands by as witness of the rite, and in the 
foreground a stag, the emblem of a fervent Christian, 
is drinking at the pure stream.* 

In a very ancient crypt of St. Lucina is another par- 
tially defaced baptism of Christ, attributed to the sec- 
ond century, in which St. John stands on the shore 
and our Saviour in a shallow stream, while the Holy 
Spirit descends as a dove. On the sarcophagus of Juni- 
us Bassus Christ is also symbolically represented as bap- 
tized by affusion. 
The annexed 
rude example 
from the Cata- 
comb of Callix- 
tus, probably of f/fl [] s 
the third century, 'V/m 
also clearly ex- /// if j \i 
hibits the ad- "P /MJL^._,.^ 
ministration of "~~ ^/_(//=^^ 'fUj 
the rite by pour- 
ing.! It is ac_ 
companied by a representation of Peter striking water 
from the rock, an emblem, according to De Rossi, of 
the waters of baptism sprinkling the sinful souls that 

* The nimbus and other characteristics indicate the comparatively 
late date of this picture. De Rossi thinks it not earlier than the sev- 
enth or eighth century. The ravages of time since the above was 
copied by Bosio have defaced part of the angel figure. In a similar 
group in a Latin MS., of the ninth century, the river Jordan flows 
from two vessels held by two boys. In another group at Monza, of 
the seventh century, the baptismal water pours from a vase held in 
the beak of the divine dove upon the head of Christ. 

f The figures are a light umber, the falling water a pale blue. 



Pig. 133.— Baptismal Scene. 



54° The Catacombs of Rome. 

come thereto. A similar example also occurs in the 
cemetery of St. Prsetextatus. 

In ancient sarcophagal reliefs in the Vatican are 
representations of small detached baptisteries of cir- 
cular form, crowned with the Constantinian monogram. 
These were necessarily of sufficient size to accommo- 
date the number of persons who were baptized at one 
time, generally at Easter,* and were placed outside of 
the basilica to indicate the initiatory character of baptism 
as the entrance to the church of Christ. f In the early 
mosaics representing baptismal scenes, the rite is invari- 
ably administered by affusion, as in the baptistery of 
San Giovanni at Ravenna, in the beginning of the fifth 
century, in Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, at Ravenna, in the 
beginning, and in the ivory relief on the episcopal chair 
of Maximinus, at the end, of the sixth century. J So, 

* The neophytes laid aside their white baptismal robes, or albs, on 
the Sunday after Easter, hence called Do?ninica in albis. In the fol- 
lowing inscription Pascasius, a neophyte of six years, is said to have 
received baptism on Easter eve, and to have laid aside his albs one 
week thereafter in the tomb : percepit xi kal. maias et albas svas 

OCTABAS (sic) PASCAE (sic) AD SEPVLCHRVM DEPOSVIT. (A. D. 463.) 

Dr. McCaul notes a striking analogy to Christian forms of expres- 
sion in an epitaph describing pagan initiation : ARCANIS perfvsioni- 
BVS IN aeternvm renatvs — " Born eternally by secret sprinklings." 
The sprinkling was that of the blood of a bull or ram, dripping on 
the bodies of the recipients of the lustration through perforations in 
a platform beneath which they stood. — Christian Epitaphs, p. 57. 

\ Although these in after times became vast buildings, with ample 
provision for baptismal immersion, in the earlier ages they were quite 
small ; and, according to Smith's Classical Dictionary, the baptister. 
ium was " not a bath sufficiently large to immerse the whole body, 
but a vessel or labrum containing cold water for pouring on the head." 
— Art., Baths. Eusebius speaks of baptisteries without the church 
" for those who require yet the purification and the sprinklingi 
(irepij!)f')avT7jptov) of water and the Holy Spirit." — E. I/., x, 4. 

\ I am indebted for these references to the Rev. Prof. Bennett, 
D.D., of Syracuse University, late of Berlin, Prussia. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 541 

also, a later example in the Lateran basilica represents 
Constantine kneeling naked in a laver, and Sylvester 
pouring water on his head.* This is also the method 
indicated in several medals, bas reliefs, frescoes, and mo- 
saics, in almost every century from the fourth, through 
the Middle Ages, indicating a continuous tradition, even 
when immersion may have been practised, of a different 
mode of baptism. 

The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was the most 
sacred and consoling rite of the primitive church. It 
was at once the emblem of the Christian's highest hopes, 
and the sublime commemoration of the ineffable sacri- 
fice on which those hopes depend. It was the focus in 
which concentrated all their holiest thoughts, kindling 
the whole soul into a flame of adoring love.f It was the 
central act of worship, around which all their solemn 
devotions gathered, and to which they all looked. 
The sublime thought of the atonement of Christ and 
of salvation through his death, shone ever star-like over 
their souls, illumining even the sepulchral gloom of 
these subterranean crypts. Daily,! or as often as the 
vigilance of their foes in times of persecution would 

* Ciampini, Tab. ii, Figs. 3, 4. 

f In later times the devout Bernard of Clairvaux thus eulogizes 
the eucharist : " It is," he exclaims, " the medicine of the sick, the 
way of the wandering ; it comforts the feeble and delights the strong ; 
it cures disease and preserves health ; it makes man more submissive 
to correction, stronger to labour, more ardent to love, wiser in fore- 
sight, prompter in obedience, more devout in thanksgiving. It ab- 
solves from sin, destroys the power of Satan, gives strength for 
martyrdom, and, in fine, brings every good." — Costeri. Institut. Chr., 
lib. i, c. 6. It was also described as " the bread of angels, spiritual food, 
the life of the soul, the perpetual health of the mind, the antidote of 
sin, and pledge of future glory." 

\ Alicubiquotidiealicubicertisintervallisdierum. — Aug., Tr., 2b, in 
yoh in. It was. in a special sense, the " daily bread of the soul." 



54 2 The Catacombs of Rome. 

permit, the faithful met in the silent halls of death, far 
from the " madding crowd's ignoble strife," to nourish 
and strengthen their souls for fiery trial, and often for 
the red baptism of martyrdom, by meditation on the 
passion of their Lord and partaking of the emblems of 
his death. 

Therefore, in ever-recurring and appropriate symbol- 
ism, was this holy rite set forth upon the walls of the 
Catacombs. Its direct representation, however, was 
carefully avoided ; and . its sacred meaning was hidden 
from the profane gaze of the heathen under a veil of 
allegory and emblem, which was, nevertheless, instinct 
with profoundest significance to the initiated. Thus, 
we find representations of seven men eating bread and 
fish, which are interpreted as the repast of the disciples 
by the sea-shore when Our Lord manifested himself in 
the breaking of bread, and, indirectly, as symbols of 
the holy eucharist.* They are not at all analogous to 
the pictures of pagan funeral banquets, to which they 
have been compared, but which are entirely foreign to 
Christian thought. The miracles of turning water into 
wine, and of the multiplication of the loaves, were also re- 
garded as types of the eucharist, which was, doubtless, fre- 
quently symbolized under these figures. We have seen a 
copy of the remarkable fresco, twice repeated in the Cat- 
acomb of St. Lucina, of a fish bearing a basket of bread 
on its back, and in the midst what seems to be a chalice 
of wine.f This is considered one of the most ancient 
emblems of this sacred rite. This view derives singular 
corroboration from a passage in Jerome, which speaks of 
carrying the body of Christ in a basket made of twigs, 

* " Christ who suffered is the fish which was broiled," says St. Au- 
gustine — Piscis assus, Christus passus. 
f See Fig. 54. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 543 

and his blood in a chalice of glass.* The eucharist is 
also evidently symbolized in the representations of fish 
and sheep carrying small loaves of bread in their mouths. 
These are sometimes marked with a decussate cross, 
as was done to facilitate fracture ^during administration. 
The first Christian altars were tables of wood, which, 
in times of persecution, could be easily removed from 
house to house in which worship was celebrated. The 
entire absence of any thing corresponding to the pagan 
sacrificial altar was made the subject of heathen re- 
proach, f In a painting found in the Catacomb of Cal- 
lixtus, which Dr. Northcote describes as " the sacrifice 
of the Mass, symbolically depicted," a man stands with 
hands outstretched, as if in act of consecration, over a 
three-legged table, on which are bread and a fish, while 
opposite stands a female figure in the attitude of prayer. 
In an adjoining chamber a precisely similar table is 
represented, but without the accompanying figures. J 
These tables were placed, not against the wall like a 
Romish altar, but set out from it, so that the ministrant 
could stand behind it looking toward the congregation. 

* Nihil illo ditius, qui corpus Domini canistro vimineo, sanguinem 
portat in vitro. — Ep. 4, ad Rustic. The communion was thus con- 
veyed to those who through sickness were absent from its public cel- 
ebration. 

f Cur nullas aras habent? — Minuc, Octav. Non altaria fabricemus, 
non aras. — Arnob., Contr. Gentes. The Christian altars were called in- 
differently, Altare, ara Dei, mensa Domini. 

% In the Lateran basilica, which is claimed as the head and 
mother of all the churches of Rome — caput et mater omnium ecclesia- 
rum — is an altar which tradition asserts St. Peter made with his own 
hands, and employed for the administration of the Holy Sacrament 
The legend attests at least an ancient opinion as to primitive 
usage. Originally only one altar was permissible in a church, but 
under Romish influence the number increased to as many as twenty- 
five, as at St. Peter's. 



5 44 ?&* Catacombs of Romj. 

In the " papal crypt " of the Callixtan Catacomb the 
rockets for the four feet of the f able thus set out from 
the wall are distinctly visible, and Bosio and Boldetti 
both found examples of altars standing in the middle 
of the cubicula. This was also their position in the old- 
est basilicas of Rome. 

In the sixth century a general council decreed that 
the altars should be of stone. This transition had al- 
ready taken place in the Catacombs, and arose from the 
employment of the slab covering the grave in an arco- 
solium for the administration of the eucharist. This 
practice led to an increased veneration for the relics 
of the saints ; and soon the presence of these relics 
became essential to the idea of an altar.* To this 
custom Prudentius refers in his hymn for Hippolytus' 

day. 

" Ilia sacramenti donatrix mensa, eademque 

Gustos fida sui martyris apposita : 
Servat ad seterni spem Judicis ossa sepulchre 

Pascit item Sanctis Tibricolas dapibus. 
Mira loci pietas, et prompta precantibus ara." 

" That slab gives the sacrament, and at the same time faithfully 
guards the martyr's remains ; it preserves his bones in the sepulchre 
in hope of the Eternal Judge, and feeds the dwellers by the Tiber 
with sacred food. Great is the sanctity of the place, and it offers a 
ready altar for those who pray." 

After the consecration of the elements by the pres- 
byter or bishop, the communion in both kinds was ad- 
ministered to the faithful by the deacons in the formula 
of its institution which we still use.f The consecrated 

* In three or four instances bronze rings are attached to the slab, as 
if to allow its removal for a second interment, or perhaps to give a 
view of the relics of the saint. 

\ Tertullian carefully guards against the literal interpretation of the 
words of Christ, " This is my body," by the addition, " that is, a fig- 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 545 

elements * were sent to any who were sick, by the hands 
of deacons or acolytes, as is still the practice in the 
Greek and Armenian churches. In the Acts of St. Ste- 
phen, we read of a young martyr who chose to be beaten 
to death by a Roman mob, rather than disclose the 
sacred treasure entrusted to his care. This practice in 
time degenerated into the superstitious administration 
of the viaticum as a preparation for the soul's journey 
to the spirit-world. Some of the gilt glasses, before 
desciibed, are thought to have been used as patens and 
chalices for the celebration of the eucharist. With the 
increasing wealth and more gorgeous ritual of the 
church, gold and silver vessels, adorned with costly 
gems and rarest workmanship, took the place of the 
humbler material of the primitive ages.f 

Another beautiful institution generally associated with 
the celebration of the eucharist in primitive times is 
that of the agape, or love-feast. In a subterranean 
chapel in the Catacomb of Marcellinus and Peter is an 



ureof my body " — figura corporis mei. — Adv. Marc, iv, 40. Augus- 
tine and others of the Fathers also discriminate between Christ's 
spiritual and corporeal presence. 

* They were called eulogia, that is, blessing or benediction. In the 
Jewish cemetery is a representation of sacred loaves, probably pass- 
over cakes, marked EYAOriA. The Christian representation of a 
cup doubtless frequently refers to the " cup of blessing " — To worfipiov 
T^f evTiOytac — mentioned by St. Paul. — I Cor. x, 16. 

\ There is not in the whole range of early Christian epigraphy the 
slightest indication of the Romish doctrine of Transubstantiation ; 
which, indeed, as Dr. Maitland remarks, "was not distinctly broached 
till the ninth century." Some of the earlier poets, however, and the 
more rhetorical of the Fathers, allude to a mystical presence of Christ 
in the eucharist, bordering on the modern Romish conception. 

The council of Elvira forbade the acceptance of any gift for the 
administration of the sacraments. How different from Rome's nier- 
cenary tariff for the celebration of masses for the dead ! 



546 



The Catacombs of Rome. 



exceedingly interesting representation of the observance 
of this custom, shown in the following engraving. 




Fig. 134— Ancient Agape. 

Three guests, it will be perceived, sit at the semicir- 
cular table, at the ends of which preside two matrons 
personifying peace and love, with their names written 
above their heads. An attendant supplies them with 
food from a small table in front, on which are a cup, 
platters, and a lamb. The inscriptions, according to 
Dr. Maitland, should be expanded thus: irene da cal- 
da[m aqvam] — "Peace, give hot water;" and agape 
misce mi [vinvm cvm aqva] — " Love, mix me wine with 
water ; " the allusion being to the ancient custom of 
tempering wine with water, hot or cold. 

Numerous other representations of this devout feast 
at which Love and Peace preside attest its general ob- 
servance. It would be a touching symbol of Christian 
unity to the persecuted saints, and would unite still 
closer hearts bound together by common dangers and 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 547 

a common hope. All the distinctions of rank were then 
forgotten. Gathering by stealth in these subterranean 
crypts from the imperial palace and the lowly abode of 
poverty, they break bread together in the solemn pres- 
ence of the dead in token of their common brotherhood 
in Christ. The slave of a Roman master, but the freed- 
man of Christ, and the patrician convert, the intellec- 
tual Greek and the once bigoted Jew, together 

Celebrate the feast of love, 
Antedate the joys above. 

This beautiful institution, first mentioned by Jude as 
the " feasts of charity,"* was usually observed in con- 
nexion with the eucharist, though not necessarily a part 
of it. It dates from the earliest period of the church, f 
and its corruptions among the Corinthians called forth 
the sharp rebuke of the Apostle Paul.J 

Tertullian thus describes its character in the second 
century : " Our supper, which you accuse of luxury, 
shows its reason by its very name ; for it is called agape, 
which, among the Greeks, signifies love. It admits of 
nothing vile or immodest. We eat and drink only as 
much as hunger and thirst demand, mindful that the 
evening is to be spent in the worship of God. We so 
speak as knowing that God hears. After washing our 
hands and bringing lights, each is asked to sing to God 
according to his ability, either from Scripture or from 
his own mind. Prayer also concludes the feast." § He 
calls it also a supper of philosophy and discipline, rather 
than a corporeal feast. At the close collections were 
made for widows and orphans and for the poor, many 
of whom would be thrown out of employment by their 

* Talc aydrraig. — Jude, 12. f Acts ii, 46 ; vi, 2. % • tCui ' .Ai,*6- 34. - 

§ Tta saturantur, ut qui meminerunt etiam per noctem adorandum 

sibi esse; ita fabulantur, ut qui sciunt Dominum audire. — Apol.. 39. 



548 The Catacombs of Rome. 

renunciation of idolatrous trades ; also for prisoners and 
for persons who had suffered shipwreck.* It is doubtless 
the agape which Pliny describes as " the common and 
harmless meal " f of the Christians, and at which, ac- 
cording to Lucian, their " sacred conversations "J were 
held. Clement of Alexandria calls the agape "the 
banquet of reason, a celestial food, and the supper of 
love; the pledge and proof of mutual affection." § 

The primitive church carefully guarded the celebra- 
tion of the eucharist and agape from the pryings of idle 
curiosity or the perfidy of heathen malevolence, lest 
the name of God should be blasphemed, or the goodly 
pearls of salvation be trampled beneath swinish feet. 
But this very secresy and mystery became the occasion 
of the vilest slanders and aspersions. The Christians 
were accused of celebrating these rites with the most 
abominable orgies — feasting on human flesh and infants' 
blood, and committing nameless crimes of still deeper 
dye. "They charge us," say the martyrs of Lyons, 
"with feasts of Thyestes, and the crimes of QEdipus, 
and such abominations as are neither lawful for us to 
speak nor think." The blameless believers were de- 
nounced as the very dregs of society, a skulking and 
darkness-loving race, meeting by night for profane con- 
juration and unhallowed banquets, as despisers of the 
gods, haters of mankind, and mockers at holy things, || 

* Jus. Mar., Apol, ii ; Socrat., Eccl. Hist., v, 22 ; Orig., in Ep. aJ 
Roffi., xvi, 16. 

\ Cibum promiscuum et innoxium. — Ep., lib. x, ad Trap. 

\ lepol Koyoi. — Peregrinus. 

§ Pcedag., ii. 

I Qui de ultima fcece collectis imperitioribus et mulieribus credulis 
sexus sui facilitate labentibus, plebem profanse conjurationis institu- 
unt : qure nocturnis congregationibus et jejuniis solennibus et inhu- 
manis cibis non sacro quodam sed piaculo fcederantur, latebrosa e f 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 549 

and were confounded with pestilent sorcerers who 
in midnight caves practiced their foul incantations 
against human life.* These accusations arose partly, 
it is probable, from distorted accounts of the holj 
communion of the body and the blood of Christ, 
interpreted as a literal partaking of the corporeal sub- 
stance ; partly from the vile practices of the Carpocra- 
tians and other heretics ; but chiefly from the malice 
of the heathen themselves, judging the character of the 
Christian mysteries from the obscene orgies of Venus 
and Bacchus. 

Tertullian indignantly resents the vile calumnies, and 
shows them to be monstrous and absurd. " We are 
daily beset by foes," he exclaims, "we are daily be- 
trayed, we are often surprised in our secret congrega- 
tions ; yet who ever came upon a half-consumed corpse 
among us, or any other corroborations of the accusa- 
tions against us? "f He retorts upon the heathen the 
charge of infanticide, human sacrifice, and unnatural 
crimes, and contrasts therewith the purity of the Chris- 
tian character. Minucius Felix also attests the mod- 
est and sober character of the Christian feasts, which 
they celebrated with chaste discourse and chaster 
bodies.! 

In course of time the agapce. lost in great measure 
their religious character, and were employed for the 
anniversaries of the martyrs, and for marriage and 

lucifugax natio . . . deos despuunt, rident sacra. — Minuc. Felix, Octav. 
Odio humani generis convicti sunt. — Tac, Ann., xv. 44. 

* Malifica superstitio. — Suet., Neron., 16. Comp. Hor., Sat., i,8. 

f Quotidie obsidemur, quotidie prodimur, in ipsis plurimum cceti- 
bus congregationibus nostris opprimimur. Quis unquam taliter vagienti 
infanti supervenit? — Apol., c. 7 ; comp. ad Nat., i, 10-15. 

\ Casto sermone, corpore castiore. — Minuc, Octav. ; comp. Orig. 
Cont. Cels., vi., Jus. Mar., Apol., i, 2. 



$$Q The Catacombs of Rome. 

funeral occasions.* They were still further desecrated 
by their substitution for pagan festivals, in order, as St. 
Augustine remarks, " that the heathen might feast with 
their former luxury, though without their former sac- 
rilege."t These "pious hilarities" thus degenerated 
in the fourth and fifth centuries, into convivial banquets 
and wanton revelry — a scandal and disgrace to Christen- 
dom, and provoked the indignant censure of the Fathers. 
"It is absurd," says St. Jerome, "to honour with feast- 
ing the saints who pleased God with their fasts." St. 
Augustine vehemently condemns those " who inebriate 
themselves in honour of the martyrs, and place even 
their gluttony and drunkenness to the account of re- 
ligion."! "These drunkards persecute the saints as 
much with their cups," he says, " as the furious pagans 
did with stones." § The good bishop of Nola, greatly 
scandalized at these semi-pagan revelries, painted with 
holy pictures the church of St. Felix, that as the igno- 
rant peasants gazed more they might drink the less. It 
has been suggested that probably the pious figures in 
the gilt glasses of the Catacombs were designed for the 
same purpose ; but many of their mottoes were of a 
highly convivial character, calculated rather to promote 
the revelry in which they were doubtlessly employed. 
Both the natalitia and the agapce at length became so 
obnoxious in character as to excite the taunts of the 

* Agapse natalitise, agapoe connubiales, and agapse funerales. 
The pagans, not unnaturally, regarded the latter, like their own funeral 
banquets, as designed to appease the manes of the dead. They would 
doubtless think the same of the modern mortuary masses. 

-)■ Non simili sacrilegio, quamvis simili luxu celebrarentur. — Aug., 
Ep., 29. 

\ Qui se in memoriis martyrum inebriant. — Aug., Cont. Faust., xx, 
21. Voracitates ebrietatesque suas deputant religioni. — De Morib 
Eccl.. i, 34. § Enarr., in Psa. lix. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 5 5 1 

pagans and the condemnation of the more devout and 
thoughtful Christians. The abuse of the latter beauti- 
ful institution became so intolerable that it became the 
object of repressive decrees of successive councils till 
it was finally abolished. The council of Elvira (A. D. 
305) prudently forbade the presence of females at these 
nocturnal meetings in the Catacombs.* That of Lao- 
dicea (A. D. 361) enacted that the agapce. should not 
be celebrated in churches. The council of Carthage 
(A. D. 397) forbade the clergy attending them, and 
the council of Trullo (A. D. 706) prohibited their cel- 
ebration at all, under penalty of excommunication. 

This beautiful symbol of Christian unity was revived 
in spirit by the founder of Methodism ; but, to guard 
against the corruptions into which it had previously 
fallen, the elements of its celebration were restricted 
to bread and water. A similar custom is also observed 
among the Moravian brethren, from whom, probably, 
Wesley borrowed it. It has also been transmitted from 
primitive times by the Nestorian Christians of the Mal- 
abar coast.f 

We have thus endeavoured to give a faithful tran- 
script of the testimony of the Catacombs relative to 
primitive Christianity. We have seen how consonant it 
is with the teachings of Holy Scripture, how opposed to 
all the institutions and dogmas of Rome. We have 
only to compare the buried relics of the past with the 
living present above ground to see at a glance the in- 

* Placuit prohiberi, ne fceminse in ccemeteriis pervigilent, eo quod 
saepe sub obtentu religionis latenter scelera committunt. 

f Among other traces of primitive Christianity among the latter 
are their married clergy and abhorrence of images. " We are Chris- 
tians, not idolaters," they said to the Jesuit missionaries, who pre- 
sented for their homage images of the Virgin Mary. 



55 2 TJie Catacombs of Rome. 

finite contrast between the church of Christ and that 
of Antichrist. Could the simple bishops of the primi- 
tive ages behold the more than regal state and oriental 
pomp in which, surrounded by armed halberdiers, amid 
the blare of martial music and thunder of the guns of 
St. Angelo, their successor of to-day rides in his golden 
chariot from his stately palace to the majestic fane of 
St. Peter — the grandest temple in the world — they would 
feel it difficult to perceive therein any resemblance to 
their own humble and often persecuted estate, or to the 
pure and spiritual religion of the meek and lowly Naz- 
arene. Could they witness the almost idolatrous hom- 
age which he receives, throned in state, tiaraed with a 
triple crown, presenting his foot for the humiliating 
osculation of bishops, cardinals, ambassadors, and pil- 
grims from every land ; could they behold him summon- 
ing from the ends of the earth the prelates of Roman 
Catholic Christendom to record a decree of his per- 
sonal infallibility and freedom from human error ; they 
would regard as blasphemous these unhallowed assump- 
tions, and denounce, as the prophetic Antichrist, him 
who laid claim to these awful attributes.* 

Above the lowly sleepers in the crypts of the Vatican 
swells the mighty dome which Michael Angelo hung 
high in air; lofty chant and pealing anthem thrill 
through the vast expanse ; polished shafts of porphyry, 

* The name of Pius is substituted for Deus in one well-known 
Latin hymn. Another pentecostal hymn to the Holy Spirit is ad- 
dressed directly to the present pontiff. The growth of this dogma 
of infallibility, the distinguished French ecclesiastic, Pere Gratry, as- 
serts, "was utterly gangrened with imposture." The stultification 
of the human intellect was never more strikingly exemplified than in 
the dictum of Bellarmine : Vera sunt vera et falsa sunt falsa ; sed si 
ecclesia dixit vera esse falsa et falsa esse vera, falsa sunt vera et vera 
sunt falsa. 



Primitive Rites and Institutions. 553 

jasper, and costliest marble gleam around ; priceless 
paintings and rarest sculpture by the hand of genius af- 
ford a still richer adorning ; at an altar blazing with gold 
and gems a human priest in many-coloured vestments 
daily repeats, as he dares assert, the ineffable sacrifice 
of Christ ; from four hundred cross-crowned campaniles 
baptized and consecrated bells ring forth the hours of 
prayer; at a thousand shrines the multitude adore, they 
vainly think, the real presence of the Redeemer ; and 
perfumed incense evermore ascends, not to the many 
gods of the Pantheon, but to the still more numerous 
saints of the Roman calendar. But we feel that all the 
kingdoms of the world, and all the glory of them, were 
a poor compensation for the loss of the primitive sim- 
plicity, purity, and spiritual power of the humble service 
of the Catacombs. We turn away from the gorgeous 
ritual and hollow pomp to those lowly crypts where the 
Christian hymn of a persecuted remnant of the saints 
ascended from beside the martyr's grave, as the truer 
type of Christ's spiritual temple upon earth. In these 
chambers of silence and gloom we find the evidences of 
that undying life of Christianity which we seek in vain 
amid the living death of that city of churches and of 
priests — the Apostolic See of Christendom — the vaunted 
seat of Christ's vicegerent upon earth. With a deeper 
significance than that with which it was first uttered, we 
adopt the language of Tertullian, and exclaim, id esse 

VERUM, QUODCUNQUE PRIMUM J ID ESSE ADULTERUM, 
RIUS.* 
* Adv. Praxean. 



INDEX 



Abraham, frescoes of, 289. 

Acclamations to the departed, 
441-443 ; pagan do., 444. 

Acolytes, 517. 

Adam, fall of, 224 ; receiving sen- 
tence, 225. 

Adornment, female, 497, 498. 

Agape, the, 545 ; abuse of, 550 ; 
suppressed, 551. 

Agnes, St., Catacomb of, 192-197 ; 
legend of, 192, 193. 

Altar, 543, 544 ; altar lights, ori- 
gin of, 378, 379. 

Amphitheatre, games of, 488 ; 
suppressed, 489. 

Ampullae, or. blood cups (?), 369. 

Anchor, symbolical, 234. 

Anthropomorphism, 352-361. 

Appian Way, 164-166. 

Arcosolia, 25, 30. 

Areas, sepulchral, 37, 56, note f, 
168-171, 183 ; pagan do., 59, Go. 

Arenaria, 38-44, 197, 199. 

Art, early Christian, 203, et seq. ; 
compared with pagan do., 205, 
209-213, 391, 392, 480 ; first 
employment of, 206, 208 ; 
sprang out of pagan do., 206- 
208; character of, 210, 211; 
pagan influence in, 210-214, 
240-243, 303, 364, 388, 391, 
480, 505 ; becomes florid, 220 ; 
avoidance of passion of Christ 
or martyrs, 227, 273, 274 ; joy- 
ous character of, 228 ; symbol- 
ism in, 325, et seq., see "Sym- 
bols " ; Virgin Mary in, see 
"Mary"; Christ in, see 
" Christ " ; God and Holy 
Ghost in, see "Anthropomor- 
phism " ; domestic art, 364-366. 

Autun, ichthyic inscription at, 
257-259- 



Baptism, 532-541 ; subjects of, 
532 ; patristic evidence con- 
cerning, 533, note ; mode of, 
535, et seq. 

Biblical Cycle, 282, et seq. ; sub- 
jects of, see Figs. 62-103 ; 
grouping of subjects, 283, 339, 
340 ; relative frequency of oc- 
currence, 341, note *. 

Bishops, 507-511, 524, 525 ; com- 
pared with presbyters, 508, note 
*, 511, note \; see "Martyr 
Bishops," and " Pope." 

Bosio, 152-155. 

Burial clubs, pagan, 66-68 ; Chris- 
tian, 68-70. 

Burial near martyrs, supposed ef- 
ficacy of, 128-132. 

Burial, subterranean, why adopted, 
50, 54 ; discontinued, 122 ; tem- 
porary return to, 122, 123. 

Cain and Abel, 285. 

Callixtus, Catacomb of, 167-183 ; 
history of, 173. 

Carpenter, implements of, 231. 

Catacombs, origin of word, 11, 
note ; described by Prudentius, 
11, 124 ; by Jerome, 34 ; present 
appearance of, 12, et seq., 37, 
44. 45, 195 J associations of, 13, 
14, 45, 46, 201 ; extent of, 14, 
and note, 15 ; entrances to, 15, 
16, 170, 189, 191, 195 ; struc- 
ture of, II, et seq., 168, et seq. ; 
galleries, 16-19 ; loculi, 19-24 ; 
cubicula, 24-31 ; different lev- 
els of, 31-33 ; luminari, 34, 35 
origin of, 37, 38, 49, and note*, 
55, 56, note *, 58, 200; not pa- 
gan arenaria, 38-44 ; geology 
of, 16, 39 ; perils of exploring, 
46-48 ; Jewish, 49-53, 188 ; not 



556 



Index. 



offspring of fear, 58 ; protected 
by law, 62, 63 ; those of first 
century, 73 ; reflect history of 
the church, 99-104, 124, 136, 
137 ; a refuge from persecu- 
tion, 84, 87, note %, 100-104 ; 
secret stairway in, 101, 174 ; 
disuse and abandonment of, 
150, et seq. ; restoration and 
adornment of, 124, 136, 137 ; 
spoliation of, 137, 154 ; destruc- 
tion of, 145-147 ; Mediaeval 
employment of, 146, 147 ; pil- 
grimages to, 136, 148, 175, 176 ; 
re-discovery and exploration of, 
150, et seq. ; literature of, 151- 
163 ; present control of, 161 ; 
principal ones, account of, 164, 
et seq. ; of Callixtus, 167-183; 
of Praetextatus, 183 ; of Sebas- 
tian, 184 ; of Domitilla, 189 ; 
of Nereus and Achilles, ib. ; 
of St. Helena, 190 ; of St. Cy- 
riaca, 191 ; of St. Agnes, 194- 
197 ; of Alexander, 197 ; of St. 
Priscilla, 198 ; art of, 203, et 
seq., see " Art " ; Mithraic tomb 
in, 214-218 ; symbolism of, 225, 
et seq. ; Biblical Cycle of, 282, 
et seq. ; gilt glasses, etc., of, 
362, etseq. ; inscriptions of, 395, 
et seq. ; doctrinal teachings of, 
415, et seq. ; evidences concern- 
ing Christian life and character, 
453, et seq. ; (for last six see in 
verbis) ; summary of testimony, 

551-553. 

Catechists, 530-532. 

Catechumens, ib. 

Cecilia, St., crypt of, 178; legend 
of, 179-181. 

Celibacy of clergy, not a primitive 
practice, 522-524 ; praise of, 
527, 528 ; practice of, 529. 

Character of early Christians, 461- 
463,481,482; of pagans, 464, 
479-481 ; see " Persecutions." 

Chanty, early Christian, 483-485, 
504. 

Christ, youthful aspect of, in art, 
342, and note f ; traditional ap- 
pearance of, 343-345 ; patristic 



testimony concerning, 343-345 ; 
early images of, 345, and note *, 
346-348 ; miraculous images of, 
345, note \ ; degradation in art- 
representations of, 347-352. 

Christians, early, rank of, 56, 57, 
and note *, 89, 169, 417, 458- 
460, 480 ; calumnies against, 
548, 549- 

Christianity, spread of, 57, 1 16- 
119 ; persecutions of, 70, et seq., 
see in verba ; triumph of, ibid., 
496 ; purifies morals, 480 ; cul- 
tivates charity, 483-485 ; pro- 
tects life, 485 ; elevates slaves, 
486, 487 ; suppresses games, 
488, 489 ; raises woman, 491- 
493 ; moral triumphs of, 504. 

Clement of Alexandria, quoted, 
384, 385, 497, 498, and note f. 

Clergy, orders of, 507 ; in Greek 
church', ib., note *; bishops, 
507-511, 524, 525 ; presbyters, 
511-513, 525; deacons, 514; 
subdeacons, 515 ; lectors, 515, 
516; acolytes, 517; exorcists, 
517-519 ; multiplication of, 521, 
note ; non-celibate, 522-526. 

Confessional, reputed, 531. 

Conjugal affections, early Chris- 
tian, 471-474; pagan do., 475, 
476. 

Constantine, 92, 120, 121. 

Constantinian monogram, 465 ; 
genesis of, ■ 466-468 ; various 
forms of, 267-269 ; becomes 
cross, 270-273, see " Cross." 

Cornelius, tomb of, 169. 

Cross, true, relics of, 139, note \, 
140, notes f, %; legend of, 271, 
272, and note ; rare in Cata- 
combs, 260 ; pagan abhorrence 
of, ib. ; caricature of, 261, and 
note § ; recognition of in na- 
ture, etc., 235, 262, 263 ; sup- 
posed mysterious power of, 263, 
264 ; pre-Christian, 281, note. 

Crucifixion, not represented in 
early Christian art, 273 ; sym- 
bolically indicated, 274 ; first 
example of, 275 ; art develop- 
ment of, 275-281. 



Index. 



557 



Crucifix, genesis of, 279, 280. 
Cubicula, 24-29, 339, 531. 
Cyprian, quoted, 82, 434 ; death 
of, 84, note %. 

Damasus, 123, 175, 406. 

Daniel in the lions' den, 298, 299. 

Dates of Catacombs, 73 ; of in- 
scriptions, 408-410, 416, et seq. 

David and Goliath, 394. 

Deacons, 514; wives of, 474, 526. 

Deaconesses, 526-530. 

Deaths of persecutors, 93, note \. 

Decius, persecution under, 81. 

De Rossi, 159, 160, 399,400,406. 

Diocletian, persecution under, 89, 
and note ^[, 90. 

Diptychs, 393, 394. 

Divinity of Christ, taught, 449, 450. 

Doctrinal teachings ofCatacombs, 
415,^ seq. j see "Purgatory," 
" Resurrection," " Trinity," etc. 

Dolls, etc., found in Catacombs, 
387. 

Domestic relations, evidence con- 
cerning, 465, et seq.; parental 
relations, 466-468 ; pagan, do., 
468-470 ; filial do,, 470 ; conju- 
gal do., 471-474 ; pagan do., 475, 
476 ; fraternal do., 476 ; friendly 
do., 476. 

Domine Quo Vadis, legend of, 
107, note *. 

Domitilla, Catacomb of, 55-57, 
and 57, note, 189. 

Doves, symbolical, 236-239, 404. 

Elijah, 294. 

Energumens, 519. 

Epigraphy, Christian, literature of, 
399, 400 ; examples of, 401, et 
seq.', see "Inscriptions." 

Eucharist, symbols of, 250, 252, 
542 ; celebration of, 541-545. 

Filial affection, early Christian, 470. 

Fish, symbolical, 252-260, 378 ; 

the word a sacred anagram, 

252 ; an allusion to baptism, 

253 ; a tessara, 255, 389 ; a eu- 
charistic symbol, 256 ; Autun 
icththyic inscription, 257-259. 



Fonts, baptismal, 537, 538. 

Fossors, 132-135, 519, 526. 

Fraternal affections, early Chris- 
tian, 476. 

Funeral rites, Christian, 499-502 ; 
pagan do., 503. 

Future state, doctrine concern- 
ing, 417-431 ; pagan do., 436- 
444. 

Galerius, 91. 

Galleries of Catacombs, i6,etseq. 

Gallienus, 86. 

Gaume, Abbe, on the Catacombs, 

201. 
Gilt glasses, early Christian, 362; 

subjects represented in, 364- 

367 ; convivial inscriptions of, 
367, 368 ; some sacramental, 

368 ; dates of, 369. 

God in art, 352-361 ; alleged sar- 

cophagal example of, 354-356 ; 

symbolized in Catacombs by 

hand, 290, 356. 
Good Shepherd, the, symbol of 

Christ, 245-248 ; statue of, 390. 
Graffiti, pagan, 59, 60 ; Christian, 

130, 148, 174, 175. 
Graves, see " Loculi." 
Greek language, use of at Rome, 

406, 407. 

Hand as symbol of God, 293, 356. 

Hebrew children, the three, 298, 
299. 

Helena, St., Catacomb of, 196. 

Heresy, growth of, 1 19, note. 

Hippolytus, statue of, 392 ; char- 
acter of, 393. 

Horse, symbolical, 382. 

Iconoclasm, early, 222. 

Ichthyic inscription, 257-259 ; 

Ichthyic symbol, see " Fish." 

Ignatius, martyrdom of, 74, note 
*, 125. 

Image worship, 222-224. 

Imprecations, pagan, 61 ; Chris- 
tian, 64, 65. 

Inscriptions, early Christian, gen- 
eral character of, 395, et seq. ; 
associations of, 398 ; collection 



558 



Index. 



and classification of, 398-400 ; 
literature of, ib. ; rude exam- 
ples of, 66, 98, 238, 267, 268, 
\OX,et seq. ; barbarous Latinity 
of, 403, and note *, 407, 422, 
426 ; inverted, 404 ; reversed, 
ib. ; brief, 238, 401-405 ; 
Greek, 406, 407 ; dates of, 408- 
410, 416, et seq. ; notes of time 
in, 410-412, 508 ; doctrinal 
teachings of, 415, et seq., see 
" Purgatory," etc. ; concerning 
future state, 417, et seq.; pa- 
gan do., 436-444 ; cheerful 
character of, 427, 430, 443, 452 ; 
concerning the doctrine of the 
resurrection, 431 ; concerning 
Christian life and character, 453, 
et seq. ; names, expressive, 454- 
457; pagan do., 455, note %, 
457 ; puritan do., 455, note § ; 
evidence of early Christian char- 
acter, 461-463 ; of pagan do., 
464; of domestic relations, 465, 
et seq. ; of parental do., 466- 
468 ; of pagan do., 468-470 ; of 
filial do., 470 ; of conjugal do., 
471-474; of pagan do., 475, 
476 ; age of marriage, 473, note 
* ; fraternal relations, 476 ; 
friendly do., 476 ; evidence con- 
cerning clerical orders, 506, et 
seq., see " Clergy" ; concerning 
Christian rites and institutions, 
432, et seq., see " Rites." 

Invocation of saints, first exam- 
ples of, 426, 446-449. 

Isaac, sacrifice of, 288, 289. 

Jerome, quoted, 36, 450, 498, 502. 

Jews at Rome, 49 ; their Cata- 
comb, 50-54, 188 ; epitaphs of, 

53- 
Job, fresco of, 293. 
Jonah, story of, 299-304. 
Joseph, 290. 
Justin Martyr, 76. 
Kip, Bishop, on the Catacombs, 

162. 
Labarum, legend of the, 268. 
Lactantius, De Mort. Persec. 93, 

note \. 



Lamb, symbol of Christ, 249, 250. 
Lamps, early Christian, 376-379. 
Lapidarian Gallery, 395. 
Lawrence, St., martyrdom of, 86, 

note * ; tomb of, 192. 
Lazarus, raising of, 329-331. 
Lectors, 515, 516, 526. 
Literature of the Catacombs, 151- 

163. 
Loculi, 19-21 ; number of, 21 ; 

how closed, 22, 23 ; contents of, 

23, 24 ; made during life, 65 ; 

sale of, 132. 
Love-feast, see " Agape." 
Luminari, 34, 35. 

MacFarlane, on the Catacombs, 
45. 161. 

Magi, adoration of, 305, 306. 

Maitland, on the Catacombs, 161. 

Marcus Aurelius, character of, 
75. 76. 

Mariolatry, no trace of in Cata- 
combs, 305, 306, 310, 316, 323 ; 
development of, 312-323. 

Marriage, references to, 304, 305, 
471-474, 494-49° ", pagan do., 
475. 476. 492. 493 J age of, 473, 
note *. 

Marriott, on the Catacombs, 162. 

Martyr bishops of Rome, 81-87, 
94-96. 

Martyrdom of Ignatius, 74, note 
* ; of Polycarp, 76 ; of Per- 
petua, 79, note % ; of Lawrence, 
86, note*; (see antea and pos- 
ted); the passion for, 11 2-1 15; 
effects of, ib. ; references to, 
372 ; symbols of, 17, 369-375. 

Martyr epitaphs : — of Marius, 75 ; 
of Alexander, 77, note * ; of 
Sixtus, 85 ; of Marcellus, 94 ; 
of Eusebius, 95 ; of Sebastian, 
96 ; of Lannus, 98 ; see 106, et 
seq. ; of St. Agnes, 193. 

Martyrologies, 110-112. 

Martyrs, number of, 105-108, 178 ; 
sufferings of, 10S-112 ; festivals 
in honour of, 127 ; adornment of 
tombs of, 123, 124; spoliation of 
do., 128, 137, 145 ; reverence for, 
123-128; burial ne.r, 12S-132; 



Index. 



559 



pilgrimages to tombs of, 136, 
148 ; veneration of martyr relics, 
124-128 ; translation of, 137, 
142, 143, note *, 144, notes *, f . 

Mary, Virgin, legends of, 307 ; in 
art, 305-314 ; miraculous im- 
ages of, 317, note § ; assump- 
tion of, 2iS, and note § ; hymns 
to, 320. 

Maximin, persecution of, 81. 

McCaul, Dr., on early Christian 
epigraphy, 162, note f , 163, 414, 
421, 541. 

Mithraic monument in Cata- 
combs, 214-218. 

Mosaic, 223. 

Moses on Horeb, 290; on Sinai, 
ib. ; striking rock, 291, 292. 

Ministry, rites, and institutions of 
primitive church, 506, et seq., 
see " Clergy," and " Rites." 

Names, early Christian, expressive 
character of, 454, 455 ; pagan 
do., 455, note \, 457. 

Neophytes, 322, 323, 540. 

Nimbus, in art, 208, note f. 

Noah, story of, 286-288. 

Northcote, on the Catacombs, 161. 

Objects found in Catacombs, 362, 
et seq. ; see " Gilt Glasses," etc. 
Opisthographfe, 268, 413. 
Oranti, 308-310. 

Pagan epitaphs, 59-62, 396, 397, 
413, 414, 434-441, 460, note, 
469, 475-478. 

Pagan influence in art, see " Art." 

Paganism, decadence of, 117; so- 
cial condition of, 479-481. 

Paintings, see "Art," "Symbol- 
ism," and different subjects of. 

Palm and crown, symbolical, 230 ; 
reputed sign of martyrdom, 372. 

" Papal Crypt," 170-178. 

Parental affection, early Christian, 
466-468 ; pagan do., 468-470. 

Paul, St., martyrdom of, 200 ; in 
art, 336-337, and notes; see 
" Peter and Paul." 

Paulinusof Nola, quoted, 22r. 



Peacock, symbolical, 240. 
Perpetua, martyrdom of, 79, note \. 
Perret, his great work on the Cat- 
acombs, 158, 159. 
Persecutions, early, cause of, 70, 

71 ; Neronian, 71 ; Domitian, 

72 ; Aurelian, 76 ; of Commo- 
dus, 78 ; of Severus, 79 ; of 
Maximin, 81 ; Decian, 81, 82, 
Valerian, 83, 84 ; Diocletian, 
88-91 ; extent of, 105-108 ; vir- 
ulence of, 108-113. 

Peter, St., at Rome (?), 53, and 
note * ; denying Christ, 332 ; 
apprehension of, 335 ; in art, 
337 ; cultus of, 338, and note * ; 
relics of, 53, note * ; font of, 
537- 

Peter and Paul, crypt of, 186-188; 
in art, 336, 337, 365, 367. 

Piani, of Catacombs, 31-33. 

Pilate, 333, 334. 

Polycarp, martyrdom of, 76. 

Pope the, 509, 511, and notes. 

Prayers for dead, unknown in 
earliest times, 421 ; first exam- 
ple of, 442, 443 ; prayers to the 
dead, 446-449. 

Prsetextatus, Catacomb of, 183. 

Presbyters, 511-513 ; sometimes 
had secular employment, 513, 
and note || ; married, 525. 

Prudentius, quoted, II, 110, 115, 
124. 

Purgatory, unknown to early 
Christians, 420, 423, 424, 445, 
446. 

Relics, worship of, 124-126, 138- 
143,544; traffic in, 138, 139; 
supposed efficacy of, 140 ; gro- 
tesque Mediaeval do., ib., notes 
f, \ , § ; reputed martyr do., 
369 ; misinterpretation of, 141- 
143. 370. 

Resurrection, doctrine of, 430-433. 

Rings from Catacombs, 284. 

Rites and institutions of primi- 
tive church : — marriage, 471- 
474 ; funeral, 499-503 ; baptism, 
532-541; eucharis\ 541-545: 
Agape, 545-551 ; see in verbis. 



560 



Index. 



Romanism, unsupported by early 
Christian epigraphy, 416-418, 
422-424; first trace of, 425, 
426, 442, 445, 446, 521-524; 
compared with primitive Chris- 
tianity, 551-553. 

Rome, fall of, 134, 135. 

Romish misinterpretation of relics, 
141-143 ; of leaf points, 227 ; 
of blood cup (?), 370. 

San Greal, the, 141-142, note. 

Sarcophagi, 334, 340-342, and 
342, note *. 

Seals, early Christian, 266, 270, 
384-386. 

Sebastian, Catacomb and legend 
of, 184, 185. 

Sepulchral areas, 56, note *, 59, 60. 

Sepulchres, pagan, 13, note *, 58 ; 
sacredness of, 58-63, 69 ; Chris- 
tian, sacredness of, 63-65, 69 ; 
violation of, see in verbo. 

Sepulture, pagan, 13, note *, 49, 
58-61, 66-68, 169, 389, 390, 
'503 ; Jewish, 49-54 ; Christian, 
499-503. 

Ship, symbolical, 230, 235, 377. 

Slaves and slavery, 486, 487. 

Soldiers, 489, 490. 

Stag, symbolical, 441, 538. 

Stanley, Dean, on the Catacombs, 
415. m 

Symbolism, 204, 225, et seq. j in- 
terpretation of, 220. 

Symbols, phonetic, 229, 230 ; 
trade do., 231-233, 374; sym- 
bolical anchor, 234, 235 ; ship, 
2 35> 377 » crown and palm, 236 ; 
dove, 236-239 ; peacock, 240 ; 
phoenix, cock, ib. ; stag, 241 ; 
horse, ib., and 382 ; lion, hare, 



241 ; vine, balance, 242 ; Good 
Shepherd, 243-248, 390 ; lamb, 
249-251 ; fish, 252-260, see in 
verbo ; cross, 263-281, see it, 
verbo; God symbolized b> 
hand, 290, 356. 

Tertullian, quoted, 79, 235,451 

489, 494, 497, 547. 
Time, notation of, 410-412. 
Thundering Legion, 78, note *. 
Toilet articles from Catacombs, 

385-386. 
Tombs, violation of, see in verbo ; 

sacredness of, 58-63, 69. 
Toys from Catacombs, 387. 
Trades, symbols of, 231-234, 274 ; 

recorded in epitaphs, 459, 460 ; 

pagan do., 460, note *. 
Trinity, alleged representation 

°f> 354 _ 36o ; doctrine of, 449- 

452. 

Valerian, persecution of, 83. 

Vases, early Christian, 380 ; bap- 
tismal, 382. 

Veronica, the, 346, note. 

Violation of tombs, 59, 61, 64, and 
note \, 65, and note *. 

Virginity, praise of, 527, 528, and 
notes. 

Virgin Mary, see " Mary." 

Virgins, epitaphs of, 528. 

Wiseman, his "Fabiola," 158. 

Woman, pagan degradation of, 
490-493 ; Christian elevation 
of, 493-495, and notes ; apparel 
of, 497, 498. 

Young, the, care of primitive 
church for, 529, 530, 



THE END. 



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